What do you get when you require physicians to go to school for 12 years?

Over-educated academics whose productivity (bang per buck) is among the lowest of any profession. And just as we have seen pharmacists being groomed as substitute physicians, now we see nurses being trained as substitutes:

As the shortage of primary-care physicians mounts, the nursing profession is offering a possible solution: the "doctor nurse." More than 200 nursing schools have established or plan to launch doctorate of nursing practice programs to equip graduates with skills the schools say are equivalent to primary-care physicians. The two-year programs, including a one-year residency, create a "hybrid practitioner" with more skills, knowledge and training than a nurse practitioner with a master's degree, says Mary Mundinger, dean of New York's Columbia University School of Nursing. She says DNPs are being trained to have more focus than doctors on coordinating care among many specialists and health-care settings.