Nurse practitioners are playing an increasingly crucial role in rural communities that have no primary care doctors or little access to them, reports Robert Joiner of the St. Louis Beacon. He writes about nurse practitioner Laurie Beach, who owns and operates the Pilot Grove Rural Health Clinic in Pilot Grove, Mo. She sees thousands of patients a day from within a 50-mile radius, and health-care providers in Missouri use her as an example of nurse practitioners' growing role in rural communities.
Even though nurse practitioners have advanced medical training and can perform many of the same tasks as primary care doctors, some patients still don't accept them as a replacement for doctors, probably because of the misguided idea that they are less capable than doctors, Joiner reports. He says they educate their patients and are often more empathetic. They also compliment the work of primary care physicians. (Read more)
Even though nurse practitioners have advanced medical training and can perform many of the same tasks as primary care doctors, some patients still don't accept them as a replacement for doctors, probably because of the misguided idea that they are less capable than doctors, Joiner reports. He says they educate their patients and are often more empathetic. They also compliment the work of primary care physicians. (Read more)
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