In recent years, the medical community has been debating if we will have enough physicians for the upcoming years. The number of physicians that is predicted to be seen in the deficit is 90,400 by the year 2025. The argument is, should nurse practitioners, physicians assistants, and pharmacy based clinics be able to treat patients and help reduce the demand for physicians? The controversy is why should nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and pharmacy based clinics be able to treat patients without being under the supervision of a licensed physician? Licensed physicians have been through many more years of schooling and practicing in treating …show more content…
Blackwelder says that “patients must have access to primary-care physicians whose training provides a depth and breadth of medical knowledge that ensures accurate diagnoses and appropriate treatment plans for complex symptoms.” Blackwelder also talks about “Team-based primary care in the patient-centered medical approach is integral to moving away from procedures-based system that only responds to illness and toward an outcomes-based system that focuses on preventing illness, limiting complications and maintain chronic conditions, and even supporting health.” Overall, Reid Blackwelder gave a persuasive and strong argument in siding with no, nurse practitioners should not treat patients without the supervision of a …show more content…
There were a few mistakes though that made his argument questionable. Those being when he kept mentioning that patients “must” he was unable to elaborate on the idea of why they must. Also when Blackwelder talked about how having team-based primary care and how it resulted in the fewer hospital visits and an increase number of savings. The reader needs to see where you are getting this information. Someone reading his argument might think that he made up the information since there is no proof of where he got it. If Blackwelder was to go back and add where he found his data and give the actual numbers, I believe that Blackwelder would be able to bring more people to agree that nurse practitioners should not treat patients without the supervision of a physician. One more thing that Reid Blackwelder needs to add to his argument is the opposing side. He needs to argue his side but he also needs to include the opposing side, he needs to point why people think that having nurse practitioners practice without physician supervision is