I believe that Nurse Practitioners and P.A.'s should play a larger role in non-emergency care. There should be several on staff right next door to every emergency room so that those who run there for the sniffles can be treated quickly and with less cost.
As a parent, I should also know as much about my child's medical history and should communicate relevant details to anyone who treats my child. Of course things can escalate quickly with small children, but any parent who has made multiple trips to the Pediatrician and then ultimately ends up at the ER knows that seeing a Pediatrician vs. a NP is not a magic bullet by any means.
When my twins were 6 weeks old, one of them got sick. We took her to see the pediatrician, and he just said to watch her. She only weighed 7 1/2 llbs and had a fever. She got worse, and took her back to the ped office on a Saturday and a PA saw her. By then my daughter was throwing uo, and the PA sent us home with goucose water because they didn’t have pedialyte. We gave her that, and then gave her pedialyte.
Well, my daughter continued to get worse overnight. The next morning was scary, and the oed office just said to bring her back in at 11am. A different doctor was there, and sent my husband to the emergency room.
My daughter was having seizures and the glucose water unnbalanced her electrolytes. She had scary low soium.
She has extensive brain damage. The malpractice lawyer said the reason we didn’t have a case is because my daughter has done okay despite the massive brain damage. Thank God, at 17 she is a straight A student. She has speech problems still, seizures, and she is very socially awkward.
I changed pediatricians, and I always have their home phone number.