Can someone explain the difference of a nurse practitioner PCP and a regular PCP? Do you go to a nurse practitioner PCP or normal PCP? What do you prefer if you’ve gone to both? Pls comment idk what to do 😭

In the most basic terms one is a nurse and the other is a physician. physicians have to do residency , medical school etc their training is far more rigorous & lengthy than a nurses training is which would allow many physicians to be able handle more complex issues / illnesses -specialties, surgeries and the like etc . I always personally go for the physician it’s a preference which doesn’t mean that nurse practitioners aren’t capable of overseeing routine care, checkups and various other conditions

I agree with Haley - I chose a more holistic NP as our family pcp.

I was looking for a good comparison and this link seems to have lots of good info!

https://www.starlingphysicians.com/when-to-visit-a-nurse-practitioner-vs-doctor-for-primary-care/

I feel like this would be the way I should go too. I asked my mom why she wants me to have a physician instead of NP and she said here in the state of Oklahoma, NPs can’t prescribe medication. I’m not currently on any medications right now so it’s not all that big of a deal to me but if I were to need medication I’d assume they’d refer me to a doctor who could prescribe it?

I just googled - but it says in OK NPs can prescribe some medications, it’s just within certain perimeters. Only certain ones and only for so long without a doctor’s supervision.
I would assume they’d refer you if you needed something more extensive to a specialists.

People forget that primary care doctors are typically just specialized in general medicine. They aren’t pediatricians, they aren’t dermatologists, they aren’t OBs, they aren’t nutritionists, they aren’t therapists… anything they can’t handle they can refer out to who can. They are definitely trained enough to handle the basics though. ❤️

Perfect. Thanks y’all! There’s a NP right down the street from where I live I see suggested ALL the time so I’m wanting to try her out as I’ve only ever had male physicians for adult primary care and I feel like they blow me off more times than not or just don’t think and actually do things correctly (testing cortisol at its peak in the morning time when I specifically said I feel like my cortisol levels aren’t going down as they should throughout the day which cortisol test for that should be later in the day from what I read). I’m going to try and get in to go see her and maybe I’ll actually be listened to and my concerns will be taken seriously and not half-assed! 💕 thanks again!

I had been seeing NPs for years but I found that they had more turnover and every year I was seeing someone new. So we finally looked for a regular doctor and I feel like our care has more continuity now. It was hard to find one accepting new patients though

My son’s pediatrician is an Np pcp

My pcp is a ‘do’ not an “md”