Opinion: Nurses could manage chronic care on doctors' orders

Expanding the role of nurses in managing chronic conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol could be an effective way to handle the shortage of primary care physicians, according to a new study. "The idea was to see if we could have nurses, who are the nation's largest healthcare workforce, assume additional roles which they already do in hospitals, but they don't necessarily do that much in outpatient settings," said lead author Ryan Shaw.