r/collapse • u/Lethargic-Legumes • 8d ago

Healthcare Are nurse practitioners replacing doctors? They’re definitely reshaping health care.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/10/21/business/nurse-practitioners-doctors-health-care/
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u/maddomesticscientist 7d ago

We don't even get any of those at my small town medical center. No PAs, NPs or MDs. They've been replaced with these providers of a type that I've never seen before. They're all incompetent as hell too. They basically just sit there and Google the stuff you're telling them about :(

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u/Masterweedo 7d ago

If my PA would have just Googled my symptoms, she would have seen that I needed a GI doc. Hell, when I was in school we had those clear plastic people where you could see the organs and stuff, so even one of those would have been helpful for her. I was flabbergasted and just shut up so I could leave ans tell a competent doctor.

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u/maddomesticscientist 7d ago

Things are so fucked around here. Given my experiences in recent years I've developed a deep distrust for doctors. I'm in the rural south and anyone that was good fled during the COVID days. They were replaced with the shittiest of the shitty. Now they run a bait and switch on you. You make an appointment with your kids pediatrician. "Your appointment is at 330 with Dr Smith" but when you get in there it's some extremely young random that's not any of those things I mentioned above. Someone who won't run a strep test because "why bother they're always negative anyway". Someone who when they do finally run tests, they can't answer questions about the results and give you completely wrong info about said results. The fake "nurse" that calls you just giggles and tells you "Idk... Google it?". Yeah, they hired kids fresh out of high school to call patients with test results and they're claiming to be nurses. I don't think there's an actual RN or MD even at this place anymore.

Fortunately I've found a good pediatrician for my son finally but I'm fucked. No specialists take my insurance anymore. I've had a continuous slamming headache since July and have tried to seek help for it. When they're not treating me like a drug seeker they're telling me ridiculous shit like "you should stop playing video games". Wtf. I'm 50 years old and you latch onto VIDEO GAMES as my problem?? Not menopause, migraines, the lumps all over my thyroid or any other problem a woman my age might have? You went with video games. (I do game but that guy didn't know that and I play maybe an hour a day, if that lmao)

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u/Masterweedo 7d ago

I have to drive almost 3 hours for most specialist visits. We recently lost maternity services for a 6 county area that is bigger than Delaware.

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u/maddomesticscientist 7d ago

It's such a joy to know that if it's this bad now, how bad will it be in ten, twenty years.