I stopped going to NPs years ago when I found I could get better information via just searching for my existing diagnosis and reading the uptodate article. They're certainly useful if you're at the grocery store and need a quick prescription...but that's about it. Granted, that's probably good enough for most medical issues and patients coming in with colds.

The frustrating part is that I've found many specialist clinics that will do a one visit intake appointment with an actual MD then pass you off to the NP for follow-up visits. The strange part is that the NP is billed at the exact same rate. I'd be happy if I was paying ~50 an hour for an NP versus 400 an hour for the specialist, but that isn't the case.