By Christina E. Sanchez
THE TENNESSEAN
Jim Cheeks wears a white lab coat, carries a stethoscope to listen to your heart and writes prescriptions for what ails you.
But Cheeks isn’t a doctor. He is a family nurse practitioner who co-owns a primary care practice, Mount Juliet Family Care, without an onsite doctor.
Cheeks and co-owner Bruce McLaughlin are part of a growing movement of nurse practitioners breaking out to start independent primary care practices. With fewer years of schooling and less debt, they enter the work force at five times the rate of primary care medical residents.
Nurse practitioners believe they could be part of the solution to the growing shortage of primary care doctors and ever-expanding health-care costs. But some question whether they have sufficient training to ensure that patients are safe.
“Physicians train for as long as they do for a reason. It’s to look for underlying issues and provide comprehensive medical care,” said Kasey Dread, executive director of the Nashville Academy of Medicine, a chapter group of the Tennessee Medical Association. “It’s about patient safety, from the physician’s perspective.”
Cheeks disagrees.
“In a family practice I do most things a general practice physician does, and there is not a lot I wouldn’t feel comfortable treating,” said Cheeks, who opened his practice six years ago.
“More and more, we will become the primary care provider for more patients. Nurse practitioners are very competent and capable to manage routine health issues.”
See the full article at Tennessean.com