If 6 + years is required to train physicians to acquire the knowledge and judgment to prescribe these dangerous and sometimes lethal drugs why does anybody, especially the Legislators, think it can be done in two years.
(MOLALLA, Ore.) - I was aghast to read in The Oregonian, May 5, 2009, that the Oregon Legislature was planning to allow psychologists to prescribe the most dangerous and lethal pharmaceuticals to “their” patients.
We have already seen what has happened in the VA hospitals where psychologists and even social workers are prescribing these extremely dangerous medicines. If you haven’t read or heard about it, these VA patients have a very high rate of suicides, homicides, other illegal drug use and homelessness. All of these can be related to “cookie cutter”, “cookbook” prescribing by the untrained.
Medicine should be prescribed by those trained to do it and it includes Medical Doctors (MD’s), Doctors of Osteopathy (DO’s), Nurse Practitioners (NP’s), and Physician Assistants (PA’s) to a lesser extent under direction of an MD or DO. There is a reason for this as I will try to explain:
To even get into Medical School or Nursing School with accelerated nursing programs, the student must have a heavy college background in biological and physical science. Only medical and nursing students have this background – IT’S REQUIRED.
Once they get into the school they have advanced biochemistry, physiology, gross and micro anatomy, pathology, neurology, bacteriology, and finally pharmacology, the bridge to medicinal therapy.
All this takes 4 years and they are not trained and ready yet. During their last/4th year they have clerkships where they follow staff doctors in hospitals or clinics to see and learn how to medically treat patients.
Their training isn’t over yet. When they start their internships they are heavily monitored by senior residents or staff doctors. For many the once standard one year internship isn’t considered enough and some training residencies can last 4 or more years and this is a constant learning experience before they are turned loose on the public. Even then they are required Continuing Medical Education Classes (CMES).
Many patients will agree even all this isn’t enough. Have you ever heard of medical malpractice?
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Now to get back to psychologists. Oregon House Bill 2702 says that the prescription privileges would be limited to psychologists who meet strict training and educational guidelines. I wonder if this is supposed to include a medical education. It sure doesn’t look like it. If these psychologists had the necessary biologic and scientific training they could get into medical school or a nurse practitioner program.
Another part of the Oregonian story was an effort to grant general prescription privileges to Naturopathic Doctors (ND’s). They already have limited prescription privileges for natural -- NOT synthetic drugs.
I taught a voluntary, non-required pharmacology course at the Naturopathic College. I even told the students exactly what the final exam would be my first lecture. When final exam day came around almost all students dropped the course. Looking over their academic curriculum, I couldn’t help but notice that the medical school courses which I outlined above were presented in a very elementary level and most of the curriculum was directed at joint and muscle manipulation much like chiropractic which has no medicinal courses.
The preparatory course for psychopharmacology for psychologists is 2 years plus 800 hours (20 weeks) of supervised dispensing. If medical schools require at least 6 years of training to achieve medicinal prescription competence how does anybody think this could be achieved in two years.
I note that the Oregon Medical Association and the Oregon Psychiatric Association are against all this. This is rightfully so. If 6 plus years is required to train physicians to acquire the knowledge and judgment to prescribe these dangerous and sometimes lethal drugs why does anybody, especially the Legislators, think it can be done in two years.
HEAVEN FORFEND! [Middle English forfenden: to ward off]
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