Are PAs and NPs replacing primary care physicians?

Christopher Garofalo, M.D., a family medicine physician and member of Physicians for Patient Protection, is quoted by Physicians Practice in a story on how nurse practitioners and physician assistants keep taking on more primary care responsibilities, often without supervision of a doctor.

In the story, Dr. Garofalo says: “It’s not just the hours, but it’s the quality of their education, particularly nowadays, with many NPs simply graduating from an NP school that is completely online… there is no experiential learning. When they do get out into the clinics, if they even get out into a medical setting, the requirements for them are minimal, if at all. Yet when they come out, they essentially want to practice independently, just like a physician”