Anticipated Patient Acceptance of New Nursing Roles and Physicians' Assistants

Abstract

A study of the nature and degree of patients' possible acceptance of nurses and physicians' assistants in the performance of tasks usually carried out by physicians indicates a considerable difference in acceptability between an upper middle class community and a lower middle and working class community. The upper middle class community more readily accepted their physician's use of assistants and nurses when compared with the lower middle and working class community. These findings emphasize the importance of possible differences in outcomes when new professional roles are used in various settings.The medical profession is faced with problems of manpower, or¬ ganization, and financing. As pa¬ tients' expectations for medical care rise, the number of primary care phy¬ sicians diminishes. In 1950 the num¬ ber of child health physicians (for 41 million children) was 242 per 100,000 children. The projected manpower for 1970 is 106 child health physicians per