| ■ Doctor shortage looming? Use nurses, report says | 2010.10.25 |
| Nurses can handle much of the strain that healthcare reform will place on doctors and should be given both the education and the authority to take on more medical duties, the U.S. Institute of Medicine said on Tuesday. A report from the institute calls for an overhaul in the responsibility and training of nurses and says doing so is key to improving the fragmented and expensive U.S. healthcare system -- President Barack Obama's signature political initiative. "We are re-creating nursing in America," Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the nonprofit Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said at a news conference. "We believe that this report and the implementation of its findings is vital to the strength of healthcare in this nation," she said. But the American Medical Association, which represents about 120,000 practicing physicians as well as students and resident doctors, quickly criticized the report. |