JP Saleeby, MD
Over the years I have worked with some great advanced healthcare providers. Whether shoulder to shoulder in the Emergency Department or as my role as a preceptor training those in programs to achieve their Nurse Practitioner or Physician Assistant degrees, they have gained my respect.
The older term of which I find a bit offensive is ‘’midlevel practitioner.” Midlevel to what I would often ask? The physician culture engrained since medical school that hoists us up to a very high pedestal to look down on others and this includes anyone without a MD/DO behind their name is a sad state. I have worked in emergency departments where there was much resistance to allowing NPs and PAs to work alongside doctors. I was always about the integration of advance providers for a very long time. This also goes for embracing other healthcare providers with different degrees such as Naturopaths (ND); TCM/Acupuncturists (LAc) and others. In reality we are all a giant team of healthcare delivery professionals tasked with taking care of our patients. So, I stopped using the term midlevel as I felt it was a pejorative term. Matter of fact there is a movement in recent months to rename Physician Assistants as Physician Associates. Again, the AMA and other medical societies are having issues with that and it comes back to that ‘’physician culture’’ that Dr. Robert Pearl talks about in his book “Uncaring”.
Now there are practitioners and there are practitioners. Not everyone with an MD or DO or FNP or other little letters following their name necessarily defines them as a quality healthcare delivery specialist. What those letters designate is they passed muster in their training programs and have typically become licensed to practice their skills. But not all providers are created equal in the sense that some are ‘’good’’ and some are ‘’not so good’’ in taking care of their patients. This encompasses the principles to include fund of knowledge, implementation, diagnostic skills, bedside manner, personality, compassion, kindness, reliability and accountability.
How the Advanced Providers at Carolina Holistic Medicine may differ? Five years ago I established a training program for my in-house nurse practitioners and physician assistants. This was born out of necessity as when I viewed what was available from other organizations and what could be gained by attending a few conferences, I was a bit underwhelmed. Not a big fan of the current medical school curriculum or educational structure I wanted something better for myself and my folks. In the late 1990s I created a curriculum for myself as at the time there was a paucity of fellowship programs in integrative and functional medicine. I since established a non-profit organization dedicated to educating providers in my model of functional medicine. We are now in our 5th year of promoting our annual online FxMed Symposiums. What sets our providers apart from others is that I spend an exorbitant amount of time educating and training our providers. After 24-months they have usually developed into a solid, well-educated provider that often outshines many with higher educational badges. I also carefully select those that apply for work with me on their character and desire to learn and enhance their professional acumen. I can confidently claim that my providers practice a better type of medicine than the majority of MDs and DOs out there.
Don’t take my word for it, come see for yourself.