The counterissue to standards being higher (which might or might not be true) is that programs are ramming students through at a faster rate. They're reducing and compressing course and theory and pushing them out into clinical settings more. You could argue that this exposes them to real-world learning faster, but my impression is that it's driven mostly by just getting extra free help in the clinic. I think once you exit the classroom, too, you're at as much of a risk of unscientific idiosyncracies of supervisors as you are likely to benefit from real-world learning.
A this point, in a lot of schools, PAs and MDs get about the same amount of in-class training, for example (especially when you consider that PA prereqs are often stricter than MD prereqs in terms of prior coursework and experience). A PA with 2 years of experience is at about the same experience as an MD just out of school. The discrepancies with specialists (e.g., optometrists, dentists, psychologists, and so forth) is even greater.
I don't think MDs are incompetent, but I think our healthcare model is basically wrong, in that people just aren't able to juggle everything in their heads, regardless of how smart they are, and someone focused on their problem, with access to the internet, just might be able to get more traction than the person trying to remember 1 out of 10000 things in their head. I think this is also why there's been a push toward specialists: it's just easier that way, even if the problem isn't that specialized, because the specialists only have to remember 1 out of 20 things.
The basic healthcare model, with MDs at the top, followed immediately by PAs and nurses, needs to change, to be more decentralized. There's a role for those training backgrounds, to be sure, but many of the same tasks could be accomplished in different ways, and many things are maybe done more efficiently and less expensively through different routes (by relying more on pharmacists, for example, or expanding training and practice for optometrists, psychologists, and so forth).
Maybe if a pharmacist had been consulted, for example--maybe if there was less of an expectation that you start with an MD, or rely on an MD to provide all the answers, or expect them to know everything--the side effect of that med would have been confirmed earlier.
This is the one silver lining that I might hope for in a renewed healthcare debate, which is a restructuring of care systems to increase competition and decrease costs. So far everything has focused on how to pay. That's not to say I agree with moving away from a single-payer system, or that the current government will lead anywhere productive, or that I've seen anything innovative from them in that area, but it's something that hasn't been done yet.
A this point, in a lot of schools, PAs and MDs get about the same amount of in-class training, for example (especially when you consider that PA prereqs are often stricter than MD prereqs in terms of prior coursework and experience). A PA with 2 years of experience is at about the same experience as an MD just out of school. The discrepancies with specialists (e.g., optometrists, dentists, psychologists, and so forth) is even greater.
I don't think MDs are incompetent, but I think our healthcare model is basically wrong, in that people just aren't able to juggle everything in their heads, regardless of how smart they are, and someone focused on their problem, with access to the internet, just might be able to get more traction than the person trying to remember 1 out of 10000 things in their head. I think this is also why there's been a push toward specialists: it's just easier that way, even if the problem isn't that specialized, because the specialists only have to remember 1 out of 20 things.
The basic healthcare model, with MDs at the top, followed immediately by PAs and nurses, needs to change, to be more decentralized. There's a role for those training backgrounds, to be sure, but many of the same tasks could be accomplished in different ways, and many things are maybe done more efficiently and less expensively through different routes (by relying more on pharmacists, for example, or expanding training and practice for optometrists, psychologists, and so forth).
Maybe if a pharmacist had been consulted, for example--maybe if there was less of an expectation that you start with an MD, or rely on an MD to provide all the answers, or expect them to know everything--the side effect of that med would have been confirmed earlier.
This is the one silver lining that I might hope for in a renewed healthcare debate, which is a restructuring of care systems to increase competition and decrease costs. So far everything has focused on how to pay. That's not to say I agree with moving away from a single-payer system, or that the current government will lead anywhere productive, or that I've seen anything innovative from them in that area, but it's something that hasn't been done yet.