Defining terms

Editor,

After many questions by several different people, I thought I would help clear up what the difference in a PA (Physician Assistant), NP (Nurse Practitioner: may have different first initial depending on specialty, for instance FNP is family nurse practitioner, PNP is pediatric nurse practitioner), MD (Medical Doctor) and a DO (Doctor of Osteopathy) is.

In basic form: a DO has medical school training including a focus on the muscular and skeletal systems to treat problems throughout the body. They regard the body as an integrated whole, rather than treating for specific symptoms only.

An MD uses allopathic medicine: they treat disease symptoms using remedies such as drugs or surgery. They are both medical doctors with a slightly different view on how to treat a patient, although many times align in their thought processes.

A nurse practitioner requires a Master’s degree. By Wyoming law, and several other states, they may practice independent of an MD. They may write prescriptions, assist with surgery and deliver babies. A PA also requires a Master’s Degree. A PA requires a medical doctor oversight, but the MD does not have to be physically present as long as they are easily and readily available for oversight. A PA may write prescriptions and assist with surgery. They may not deliver babies.

A critical access hospital is a hospital that can only have 25 or fewer acute care inpatient beds. It must be located more than 35 miles from another hospital. It must maintain an annual average length of stay of 96 hours or less for acute care patients and provide 24/7 emergency care services.

I know one of the hot arguments in town at this time is that we may not have a full time medical doctor by October 1st. I would just like to remind people that our PA’s and NP’s are a very important part of the current practice in town. The NP’s and PA’s have been shouldering huge responsibilities in the absence of MD’s over the last couple of years.

After investigating and looking at the facts of what it is that they CAN do, I feel that they are being demeaned by the opinion of some who state that we have to have a full time doctor in town at all times because of their health issues. I could not find much in the clinical aspect that is already in place at the clinic, that a PA or NP could not do.

Mandy Cooper,

Saratoga