[namelessoracle]

Try setting up a business for something relatively minor like helping people contest a traffic ticket (no representing them in court) and see what happens. You dont need a full legal education to do basic contestation of traffic tickets, but the legal system requires it.

There is a plethora of things that are minor, don't require going to court, and can be handled via bog standard forms and documents that are just "replace the names" and that lawyers have their paralegals do for them in their entirety. But the paralegal cant go into business on their own can they?

What is the equivalent of the nurse who can get you antibiotics in the US legal system?

[ClarityJones]

You raise a very worthwhile topic, because both fields have expanded, and they have expanded along very different paths.

The medical field has splintered. Osteopaths kind of invented their own thing and broke into medical doctors' monopoly. Registered Nurses can do some things, but not others. BSNs. CNAs. Nurse Practitioners. Physicians Assistants. Chiropractors. etc. The strength of their cartel has led to attacks by new and novel qualifications, and the compelling need for more medical providers has allowed these attacks to successfully carve out roles.

Some can prescribe medications, others can't. Some are limited to specific medications. Others can perform surgery, others can't. Some can diagnose diseases, etc. Moreover, some qualifications are a step toward a higher qualification, others are traps that don't progress you to an MD/DO at all.

The legal field seems far more egalitarian in that any lawyer can practice any area of law (except patent law), and people can generally represent themselves and their minor children without any qualifications. Folk don't need a lawyer to contest tickets, or to draft contracts that they're a party to, or to negotiate their own settlements, etc.

However, appallingly, the general public is not allowed to prescribe medicine for themselves or their children. Folks cannot buy contacts / glasses on their own, etc. Folks shouldn't need a nurse to get antibiotics for ourselves, and yet we do.

[Ancapistani]

> Folks cannot buy contacts / glasses on their own

That's news to me.

[ClarityJones]

Yeah, in the US, customers need permission from an optometrist.

Edit: When buying for nearsightedness.

[hollerith]

Some eyeglasses do not require permission (prescription) in the US, including bifocal and progressive lenses.

[ClarityJones]

I know that's true for reading glasses, but is that also the case for distance?

[hollerith]

I don't know: I've never needed a lens that "un-magnifies".

[codingdave]

Nurse practitioners have as much, if not more, education than attorneys. And they still need to work within the regulations of our system.

I get what you are trying to communicate - maybe we are over-regulated... yet any time your professional work has the potential to harm your customer if done incorrectly, I don't think having some educational requirements are unreasonable.

[ceejayoz]

> What is the equivalent of the nurse who can get you antibiotics in the US legal system?

A paralegal. In about half the US, said nurse practicioner must be working under a supervising doctor, just like the paralegal works under a supervising lawyer.

[namelessoracle]

> In about half the US

So there isn't one.

[ceejayoz]

Paralegals and NPs are similar in this regard in about half the country.

NPs can independently practice - to some extent - in the other half.

(You'll find a lot of paralegals coming very close to practical indepdendent practice, though. Supervision can be quite theoretical.)