> While diagnosing and treating patients was once doctors' domain, they are increasingly being replaced by nurse practitioners and physician assistants, collect

> While diagnosing and treating patients was once doctors' domain, they are increasingly being replaced by nurse practitioners and physician assistants, collectively known as "midlevel practitioners," who can perform many of the same duties and generate much of the same revenue for less than half the pay. [...] In a statement to KHN, American Physician Partners said this strategy is a way to ensure all ERs remain fully staffed, calling it a "blended model" that allows doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants "to provide care to their fullest potential." This seems like you're expecting your ER docs to handle the worst of the worst for days on end, rather than a good blend of patients. Seeing a "routine" ER patient may offer a mental break between a more critical patient. It truly seems like an actively shitty work environment to always walk into have the worst of the worst cases—because going to the ER is already a worst case. This is not the right way to keep humans running well, for both the sick and the docs.