Organized medicine has worked with allied health providers in past scope of practice debates to find common ground where the allied health providers’ education and training is adequate to manage a patient on his or her own. For example, physicians and physical therapists solved the direct access issue in the 2019 Texas Legislature.
However, in the case of surgery, a policy compromise is more than just that: It can also be a compromise of a patient’s eyesight. There simply is no middle ground when it comes to the serious nature of surgery.
No Shortcut to Becoming a Surgeon
There is already and tried and true pathway to becoming a surgeon: medical school and residency. The good news is that there is no age limit for applying to medical school and starting the journey toward becoming a skilled surgeon. Creating a lower and inferior pathway would be wrong.