Pediatric "Care-A-Van" Staffed by NP

In Chicago, nurse practitioner Patricia Carr staffs the city's largest mobile pediatric care unit. The Care-A-Van provides immunizations, physicals, hearing and vision screenings, pulmonary function testing, asthma assessments, childhood health promotions, injury prevention and education. 

“It’s an amazing program,” Carr told Chicago's Medill Reports. “It’s just like a regular doctors visit, and there’s no rush. I get to individualize my time with each child.”

The van provides opportunities for care that children otherwise wouldn't get. “It’s providing health care to some of these families who are afraid, perhaps, to seek health care,” Carr told Medill Reports. "I know that we have a lot of people who are here illegally—that doesn’t matter to me. I go home every night knowing I gave healthcare to families that wouldn’t otherwise get it. And, that’s important to me.”