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The same doctors then fight extremely hard against the expansion of the roles of registered nurses to tend to these minor ailments that they’re too good to trea

The same doctors then fight extremely hard against the expansion of the roles of registered nurses to tend to these minor ailments that they’re too good to treat.

J-dawg 9y ago
I haven't heard of this before, can you expand on this?
- jackvalentine 9y ago
  It's kinda late, but to bring it back in a bit my experience is with AU - the government in my state wants to use nurses to do low-level healthcare stuff and General Practitioners (doctors who do family medicine, not a specialization) are pushing back because they say the funding doesn't stack up, and people need to be driven in to GP offices to ensure lifecycle heathcare. Some people think they're rentseeking, some people think they have a point. I obviously have my opinion but I won't push it on you.
kalleboo 9y ago
That sounds like a US thing, does that happen in the UK as well?
- jackvalentine 9y ago
  My experience is in AU. Every state is a bit different though.
MistahKoala 9y ago
Amusingly, in the UK it's nurses who have been resisting the professionalisation and expansion of ancillary roles. Despite broadening their scope of specialism and responsibility over the past couple of decades, a specialist nurse friend tells me that they're quite stubborn as a profession, with other roles (e.g. technicians and assistant practitioners) overtaking parts of the job that nurses could have taken.
- jackvalentine 9y ago
  > Amusingly, in the UK it's nurses who have been resisting the professionalisation and expansion of ancillary roles. What's the reason behind this - government wants them to do more work without more pay? An innate sense that they're doing exactly the right job and why change it?
  - MistahKoala 9y ago
    Oops, missed your question until just now. The impression I got from my friend/colleague is that nursing in the NHS is an innately conservative and rigid culture (as it is in other areas of healthcare), which goes to the heart of nursing's governing body in setting policy. Whilst nursing has expanded the scope of roles available in recent years (taking on prescribing responsibilities and increased specialisation), it perhaps might not have been at quite the pace or breadth as circumstances require. Consequently, some of the supporting roles that are more flexible, like technicians and healthcare assistants, have started to take on more routine tasks like simple obs and assessment; this makes sense because in most cases, taking blood, measuring lung function and hearing etc. are easy to do - the actual assessment and signing off of work is still done by a (more expensive and better utilised elsewhere) clinician.

The same doctors then fight extremely hard against the expansion of the roles of registered nurses to tend to these minor ailments that they’re too good to treat.

J-dawg 9y ago

I haven't heard of this before, can you expand on this?

jackvalentine 9y ago
It's kinda late, but to bring it back in a bit my experience is with AU - the government in my state wants to use nurses to do low-level healthcare stuff and General Practitioners (doctors who do family medicine, not a specialization) are pushing back because they say the funding doesn't stack up, and people need to be driven in to GP offices to ensure lifecycle heathcare. Some people think they're rentseeking, some people think they have a point. I obviously have my opinion but I won't push it on you.

kalleboo 9y ago

That sounds like a US thing, does that happen in the UK as well?

jackvalentine 9y ago
My experience is in AU. Every state is a bit different though.

MistahKoala 9y ago

Amusingly, in the UK it's nurses who have been resisting the professionalisation and expansion of ancillary roles. Despite broadening their scope of specialism and responsibility over the past couple of decades, a specialist nurse friend tells me that they're quite stubborn as a profession, with other roles (e.g. technicians and assistant practitioners) overtaking parts of the job that nurses could have taken.

jackvalentine 9y ago
> Amusingly, in the UK it's nurses who have been resisting the professionalisation and expansion of ancillary roles. What's the reason behind this - government wants them to do more work without more pay? An innate sense that they're doing exactly the right job and why change it?
- MistahKoala 9y ago
  Oops, missed your question until just now. The impression I got from my friend/colleague is that nursing in the NHS is an innately conservative and rigid culture (as it is in other areas of healthcare), which goes to the heart of nursing's governing body in setting policy. Whilst nursing has expanded the scope of roles available in recent years (taking on prescribing responsibilities and increased specialisation), it perhaps might not have been at quite the pace or breadth as circumstances require. Consequently, some of the supporting roles that are more flexible, like technicians and healthcare assistants, have started to take on more routine tasks like simple obs and assessment; this makes sense because in most cases, taking blood, measuring lung function and hearing etc. are easy to do - the actual assessment and signing off of work is still done by a (more expensive and better utilised elsewhere) clinician.