Mid-Levels

I am starting to be concerned about mid-level providers in healthcare. It's not that I am worried about my job security or any of that non-sense. Instead I am worried about the quality of healthcare that future Americans will be receiving.

I was recently sent an e-mail by a friend of mine that breaks down some of the "required clinical hours" in different healthcare fields. They were as follows:
DNP (doctorate degree in nursing): <800 hours
PA (physician assistant: approx. 2500 hours
M.D./D.O. (physician): >15,000 hours

At first, I did not believe that you could get a doctorate in nursing so easily. Maybe somebody more experienced in this degree can comment, but I googled this degree recently. What I found was startling. There are "on-line" doctorate degrees for nurses! There must be more too this than I am finding. My brother has taken some on-line courses, and they are the easiest courses I have ever seen. Some of these doctorate programs for nursing required you to attend "4x/year"! Where is the quality assurance aspect? Please somebody comment on this because from what I can find on google, this degree doesn't seem like it adds anything.

I found a more "rigorous" program at my alma mater. They only require 30 credit hours for completion (feel free the check the website). I really do not mean to be condescending. I respect nurses, and I know some great nurse practitioners. This DNP program just doesn't impress me. I do not have a problem addressing a nurse with a DNP degree as "doctor" if he/she earns it. I do have a problem if it affects patient care.

From what I have found, the P.A. degree seems to be organized and has great quality assurance. They have (on average) 3x the clinical experience of a DNP in a supervised program. P.A. students attend full-time (not on-line), many programs have mandatory attendance to all classes, and it lasts an extra year compared to the DNP degree.

Once again, I think nurses are great. I have no problem working with mid-level providers, and I plan to do so in the future. The question is......which should I hire? If I needed to hire a mid-level provider, all things being equal, right now I would definitely hire the P.A.

If I were a nurse, I would be upset (to say the least) that some of these DNP programs were so relaxed. Someone needs to jump in and push to make this new DNP program a quality degree with tougher requirements.