Nurse practitioner Sue Shirato who recently graduated from Thomas Jefferson University with a Doctorate of Nursing Practice introduces herself as “Dr. Shirato” to her patients. Other physicians and nurse educators are mixed on this practice, thinking it will lead to confusion for patients who won’t know if a medical doctor is treating them or not. Pennsylvania Medical Society President Dr. James Goodyear points out that most nurse practitioners have hundreds of hours of clinical training, while physicians have many thousands of hours, including up to 50,000 hours for fellowship-trained surgeons.
Disclosure: This editor is a graduate of Thomas Jefferson University
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