<p>I am a Master’s prepared Nurse Practitioner. I am not a “doctor wannabe”. If I wanted to be a doctor, I would have gone to med school. I introduce myself as Dkitty, the nurse practitioner. If and when I get my Doctor of Nursing Practice, I will have the credentials after my name on my Rx pad, but will still be Dkitty the nurse practitioner. </p>
<p>I like my niche in the medical world. I can handle the minor medical issues and the day to day stuff, which frees up the doc to handle to complicated cases. Anything that I am not sure about gets kicked up the chain to the doc. I actually have a lot of patients who only want to see me, they don’t want to see the doc because I spend more time talking to them. I have to tell them that it’s important that their DOCTOR knows what’s going on with them too, as he is their DOCTOR, not me. :)</p>
<p>I am very conscious of the difference in our training. Doctors really do have more knowledge. NPs have great training and offer that nurse caring aspect. When you have a doc who is not afraid of the “competition” from NPs, you actually have a really good team and the patient benefits. And isn’t that the whole point?</p>