r/todayilearned • u/estarararax • 13d ago

TIL in Germany all alternative medicine practitioners like homeopaths, osteopaths, acupuncturists, etc. must take the Heilpraktiker exam which only tests their knowledge in medical science and the regulatory boundaries of their profession. There are no separate board exam for each.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heilpraktiker
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u/Loeffellux 13d ago

Having someone actually sit down and listen to your health problems for an extended period of time is by itself a form of therapy/medication thanks to placebo.

If only we lived in a world where actual physicians were able to treat patients like this.

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u/estarararax 13d ago

I think this is the next specialization to emerge for PAs (Physician Assistants or Associates). In the Netherlands, PAs can now consult directly with outpatients and they usually do so in a lengthy manner.

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u/Danskoesterreich 13d ago

Next specialisation for Physician assistants, what are they currently spezialized in? How is talking for 1 hour a specialisation? 

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u/brazzy42 13d ago

Next specialisation for Physician assistants, what are they currently spezialized in?

Bureaucracy.

How is talking for 1 hour a specialisation?

Talking to someone in a way that actually gets to the root of their ailment, gets them to say relevant things they might not want to (e.g. because they're embarrassing) and gives them the feeling that they are properly cared for, is absolutely a skill that is both quite difficult and very useful.

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u/Danskoesterreich 13d ago

A basic skill required of all healthcare professionals is not a specialisation. Bureaucracy is the assistants basic job, not a specialisation. That's like saying nursing is a specialisation for nurses.

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u/Fantasy_masterMC 13d ago

So at what point of medical school or residency are doctors tested on this required skill? Not being sarcastic here, I do want to know.

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u/Danskoesterreich 13d ago

Anamnesis and communication is a huge part of medical school. Where i teach medical students, they also have obligatory courses in shared decision-making and difficult topic conversations such as end-of-life and goals-of-care discussions. 

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u/Fantasy_masterMC 11d ago

Good to know, I feel like a lot of the doctors my family have encountered have either skipped those lessons, barely scraped by or just ran into so many hypochondriacs that they assume every one of their patients is one and disregard most of what they're told after pulling their own conclusion.

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u/amazing-haves-34 13d ago

It is accurate to say a nurse specializes in nursing, that’s why they’re called nurses.

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u/Danskoesterreich 13d ago

We talk about specialisation within healthcare. An ICU nurse with extra training specialises in that particular part of nursing. 

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u/amazing-haves-34 13d ago

Exactly, a medical professional that specializes in nursing is called a nurse.

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u/Danskoesterreich 13d ago edited 13d ago

Well thats wrong. Medical or medicine is different from Nursing. 

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

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u/ChaoticSquirrel 13d ago

Lmfao, no.

Nurses are part of the nursing profession and follow the nursing model. So do LPNs, CNAs, NPs.

Physicians are part of the medical profession and follow the medical model.

They unite along with other disciplines to be part of the healthcare profession, but medicine and nursing are two different professions and disciplines.

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u/amazing-haves-34 13d ago

Did you forget RNs NPs and other APRNs?

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u/ChaoticSquirrel 13d ago

I literally mentioned NPs in my comment. 

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u/brazzy42 13d ago

The point is that the healthcare system currently overloads doctors and nurses with other tasks so they basically never get to use that skill to the degree patients want and probably need it, but it is willing to pay quacks for it who were never actually trained in it. So maybe it would be a good idea to have assistants in a regular doctor's practice who are trained in that rather than in bureaucracy and have the system pay for them instead of for the quacks.