Nurses press the White House for a bigger role in primary care, including diagnosing patients and determining treatment, a move they say would save money. Due to the shortage of primary-care doctors, "a person who would see a nurse as a first-line provider would get better care," argues Virginia Trotter Betts, president of the American Nurses Association.But the American Medical Association wants to keep nurses in supporting roles. "This is a quality of care issue," says AMA Chairman Raymond Scalettar. "We're not looking down on nurses at all, but this push is wrong and could be harmful to the public." Instead, the doctors' group wants to assure that all Americans have a primary-care physician.
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