Interesting information on Nurse Practitioner Reddit Thread
I tried cross posting the NP post on here however r/pharmacy would not take the cross post.
The NP post talks about drops in NP salary and oversaturation of the NP market due to more NP academic programs. Also many recent nursing graduates practice for less than 2 years at the bedside and then become NPs
Holy pill counting tray what exactly has Pharmacy particularly the organizations been doing the last 40 years or so? A person can graduate high school, Get the BSN and pass the boards. Couple of years later they are in NP school. Many allow for part time study while working as an RN.
Pharmacy academia pitched the PharmD as a major step towards gaining Provider status. For decades the Professional Organizations have lobbied for Provider status with zero progress.
Now we have underpaid Pharmacy Residencies. Surely a Residency makes the Pharmacist a Provider. Nope
Here are a few reasons why the information from NP thread is important to Pharmacists. Also why Provider status for Pharmacists won't be happening.
If the NPs complain about market saturation and of course there are also Physician Assistants why does the system need more Providers?
Most Pharmacies that are open don't have the time or additional staff to be Providers. Many current Pharmacies need 2 Pharmacists during a typical day however that never happened when vaccines came onboard.
The USA is losing Pharmacies creating Pharmacy Deserts. WORRY ALERT! NPs and PAs looking for work look to dispensing medications to fill the void.
Health Insurance companies like to make a lot of money and they do. Why would they want to reimburse another group of Providers?
Many Pharmacists want nothing to do with dispensing drugs fancying themselves as Clinical Warriors. Some of them are but many should be asking what is the future of this type of Pharmacist practice?
Pharmacy should pivot. Emphasize both dispensing skills combined with an emphasis in Clinical practice. Most pharmacists motivated to do so can do clinical practice. Proper reimbursement for dispensing and Clinical skills is warranted for this service.
Recently I had a much younger Pharmacist tell me that older Pharmacists are not capable of learning and using clinical skills. The Pharmacist believed this because they were told that Pharmacists educated 30 years ago were not taught clinical skills with the emphasis on dispensing.
LOL several times over
I referred my younger colleague to Dr Koda Kimble and the era of Pharmaceutical Care in 1990 36 years ago. Clinical Pharmacy along with compounding dispensing and counseling was taught 30 years ago and then factor in the Pharmacists experience and Continuing Education along the way.
A model for today's Nurses to become NP's through their experience.
Well gotta go I have spoken long enough and I have to get ready to dispense 300 Rxs and recommend vaccines to patients. See some of you on the frontlines!
EDIT Alert
I am posting this reply to a fellow Redditors comment to be clear that I am not advocating for Provider Status for Pharmacists. Perhaps my writing style did not make that clear or my colleagues reading comprehension skills are off.
Here is my reply
Where in my Post did I advocate for Provider Status for Pharmacists. I am making the case here that Pharmacy should give up the push for Provider Status and get reimbursed more for the work we are doing