Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Hiring, Working with PA's and NP's

I thought I would post here as I respect a lot of you experienced physicians and practice owners. I've reached the point in my practice where I'd like to hire a mid-level provider. I'd welcome the opportunity to discuss with one of you that has experience in this area. We can PM, email, voice chat, etc. Thanks!

NP's and PA's are just like doctors -- some think clearly and have a lot of native intelligence and common sense, and make great clinicians. Others (including doctors, not so much)
Their formal training is much less comprehensive, but after a few years they can acquire amazing skills and intuition.
There are also mail-order DNP (Doctor of Nurse Practice) programs that turn out poorly trained and completely clinically naive people.

I'm not sure the educational degree really matters -- but now there is a bewildering variety of practitioners and it is impossible to know who is competent and who is not. At least in Oregon, it's the Wild West.

I have to ditto Tom. There are very good ones, and not so good, as is true with MD/DOs

They are expected only to see 1/2 to 3/4 the workload of an MD, some can do a full workload. Since they get paid about the same percentage, I'm not totally sure how good of a bargain they are, but they do provide good coverage.

I had the opposite problem. I had a great NP but had to let her go because of money. She did her Pediatrics training at my office, and I knew her when she was an ER nurse, so I knew what I was getting. She was with me for almost 10 years. I was sorry to see her go, but when it comes to getting paid, it was her or me.

My PA has been with me about 5 years, and I had another about 10 years ago that left after a couple of years. I am solo FP so am pretty familiar with the business aspects. Feel free to message me if you have questions.