I think physical therapists and nurse practitioners have been sold the same bill of goods as far as a "doctoral degree" is concerned. In most hospital systems physicians get very touchy about who is called "Dr." Even psychologists who have earned the honorific have been told not to use it in a hospital setting which is really ridiculous as far as I am concerned. (I get called Dr. or Doc because I write the prescription. I say very emphatically that I am not a physician or doctor, but folks don't pay attention. I write the prescription.)
Nurses are told that if they want to understand "systems" better, they need the Doctor of Nursing Practice. Notice the word "systems." It isn't meant to become a better practitioner, but a better administrator, I guess.
By the way, I have a Master's Degree in Nursing. I earned it about 15 years ago. It cost me about $50,000 or so. I don't have a BA in Nursing - I have a 2 year degree in nursing. I have a BA in another area, but that is a different story. It took me three years to earn the degree. I worked full-time as an RN. I still had to take out loans because I had a life as well - mortgage, bills, and husband to support. I paid back the loans with a bit of luck and three years of service in a Community Mental Health Center. (A Community mental health center doesn't foster the same kind of community as Community Acupuncture does.) I won't ever take on the debt to get a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree.
The irony is, when the acupuncture profession introduced the doctorate, a huge part of the rationale was that physical therapists were doing it and we had to keep up with THEM. I wonder how many of us in all disciplines would like to opt out of this ridiculous race.
I'm willing to bet that the adoption of the Doctorate for PT as the entry-level degree marked the time when an increasing amount of PT was provided by PT Assistants, and that is where the field is growing now. And I expect that in time the PTA's will increasingly want to be able to work independently. Many LAcs would, at this point, freak out at the thought of establishing an "Assistant" track. But, if the schools are around long enough they will probably figure out that lower-cost "Assistant" programs could keep their programs alive a bit longer. And the LAcs will increasingly move into "supervisory" roles earning their income from taking a cut of the assistant's labor. After all, that's what's happened in the establishment that we have been so desperate to join.
That's an interesting perspective. One thing I wonder about still is the economic math. In the past it's come up around the idea that maybe community acupuncturists should be "supervised" by someone who has a doctorate. Without getting snarky about that, the part that obviously doesn't work is that community acupuncture does not generate enough revenue to pay a "supervisor" as well as the people doing the actual work. I'm not sure conventional acupuncture revenue streams support creating another tier of jobs either, especially with the way that insurance reimbursement is trending downward. But regardless, your point further underscores how acupuncturists totally didn't think out the implications and the economic math of having doctoral degrees in the first place. It was just blatantly keeping up with the Joneses. Too bad all the Joneses we've kept up with are being squeezed by insurance companies.
I think physical therapists and nurse practitioners have been sold the same bill of goods as far as a "doctoral degree" is concerned. In most hospital systems physicians get very touchy about who is called "Dr." Even psychologists who have earned the honorific have been told not to use it in a hospital setting which is really ridiculous as far as I am concerned. (I get called Dr. or Doc because I write the prescription. I say very emphatically that I am not a physician or doctor, but folks don't pay attention. I write the prescription.)
Nurses are told that if they want to understand "systems" better, they need the Doctor of Nursing Practice. Notice the word "systems." It isn't meant to become a better practitioner, but a better administrator, I guess.
By the way, I have a Master's Degree in Nursing. I earned it about 15 years ago. It cost me about $50,000 or so. I don't have a BA in Nursing - I have a 2 year degree in nursing. I have a BA in another area, but that is a different story. It took me three years to earn the degree. I worked full-time as an RN. I still had to take out loans because I had a life as well - mortgage, bills, and husband to support. I paid back the loans with a bit of luck and three years of service in a Community Mental Health Center. (A Community mental health center doesn't foster the same kind of community as Community Acupuncture does.) I won't ever take on the debt to get a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree.
The irony is, when the acupuncture profession introduced the doctorate, a huge part of the rationale was that physical therapists were doing it and we had to keep up with THEM. I wonder how many of us in all disciplines would like to opt out of this ridiculous race.
I'm willing to bet that the adoption of the Doctorate for PT as the entry-level degree marked the time when an increasing amount of PT was provided by PT Assistants, and that is where the field is growing now. And I expect that in time the PTA's will increasingly want to be able to work independently. Many LAcs would, at this point, freak out at the thought of establishing an "Assistant" track. But, if the schools are around long enough they will probably figure out that lower-cost "Assistant" programs could keep their programs alive a bit longer. And the LAcs will increasingly move into "supervisory" roles earning their income from taking a cut of the assistant's labor. After all, that's what's happened in the establishment that we have been so desperate to join.
That's an interesting perspective. One thing I wonder about still is the economic math. In the past it's come up around the idea that maybe community acupuncturists should be "supervised" by someone who has a doctorate. Without getting snarky about that, the part that obviously doesn't work is that community acupuncture does not generate enough revenue to pay a "supervisor" as well as the people doing the actual work. I'm not sure conventional acupuncture revenue streams support creating another tier of jobs either, especially with the way that insurance reimbursement is trending downward. But regardless, your point further underscores how acupuncturists totally didn't think out the implications and the economic math of having doctoral degrees in the first place. It was just blatantly keeping up with the Joneses. Too bad all the Joneses we've kept up with are being squeezed by insurance companies.
I'm not sure how well it is working out for the PT's either. But, yes, just made no sense for anyone except, temporarily, the schools.