The number of nurse practitioners has nearly quadrupled since 2010, and the profession's meteoric rise will likely continue. BLS projects the number of nurse practitioners will grow 40% between 2023 and 2033. Increasingly, though, NPs are doing work that doctors have historically done, leading to tension between the groups over training, experience, and pay. "One of the most intense and acrimonious, non-partisan policy debates right now is between MDs and NPs," says Michael Barnett, a primary care physician and associate professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
