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You are at:»EPM Talk Podcasts»EPM Talk Ep. 72 – Who’s Down with APP Preference?
ABOUT THE AUTHORS

FOUNDER/EXECUTIVE EDITOR Dr. Plaster has been an emergency physician for more than 30 years, working exclusively night shifts for the past 20 years in emergency departments across the country. During that period, he joined the U.S. Navy and served two tours in Iraq. Dr. Plaster is the founder and executive editor of Emergency Physicians Monthly and the founder of Plaster Publishing.

Andy Little, DO specializes in Emergency Medicine at AdventHealth East in Orlando Florida.

2 Comments

  1. Mordehai Zadik on

    I love to read dr mark plaster night shift ,actually I miss it when it is not on e.p.m . He is wonderful writer beside being one of the best doctors.

    Reply
  2. Robert Wells, DNP FNP-C ENP-C on

    I listened with interest in the discussion and as an APP (advanced practice provider; physician assistant, nurse practitioner) I am not out to take your job. Nor are any of my immediate colleagues out to take your job. I look at the position as one of filling a needed role in our evolving healthcare system. I look at the role of an APP to be someone that helps out that sole EM doc on the night shift. To be someone that can help with the search of patients so that you can focus on the really sick ones.
    I do understand that corporations might be looking to APP’s as a inexpensive alternative but may I suggest that you might be coming at that issue the wrong way. APP’s are generally compensated somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 to 30% of what EM physicians are compensated at. Most of us are not paid much more than our nursing colleagues. Rather than fighting against the addition of the APP in the healthcare model you should embrace it but also ensure that the compensation for this role is more appropriate for the training that we have gone through. Make it less attractive for corporations to employ APP’s for purely financial reasons.
    As far as the idea of APP’s taking procedures and other training opportunities away from residents, maybe the teaching facilities that I worked in have figured it out but I do not see the animosity that you guys are describing. For APP is to be able to appropriately help out and fill the role that our healthcare system has created for us we do need to be properly trained, it is the best thing for the patient. And are they really taking that many procedures away from residents? The bottom line is that APP’s are feeling rules that are vacant for the most part, and are providing much needed care. It is what is best for the patient.

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