What Brings NPs Together
[Note from the editors: Following is a post by a former Real Life in Retail Health blogger about this summer's American Academy of Nurse Practitioners conference. She has left the retail health industry but still wished to share her thoughts on this conference with our blog readers.]
I attended all 5 days of the AANP national conference in Nashville; I really had an interesting time. I met many NPs from all over the United States.
I cannot comprehend how very many different roles that NPs are filling. Every possible field of medicine was covered from neuro to OB, trauma to psych, family practice to ER. What really surprises me is the number of specialty roles NPs fill. I listened to a speaker who is running a clinic in a maximum-security prison and not just doing infirmary care but adult family practice, internal medicine and nursing home type care then throwing in hospice too all within the confines of a prison. I was really interested in the palliative care hospital programs. This is one way that NPs will get noticed and will make an NP's value apparent to the big hospital systems if managed correctly. What about those who are first assists in surgery, being billed thru the hospital or physician or even more impressive being their own boss and contracting themselves out to surgeons. There were NPs who are managing ICUs and really performing intense critical care skills inserting lines and trachs and all I can think is, "Amazing!"
Quick clinics, urgent cares and the ERs are showing the community that NPs are fully capable of meeting their needs.
Then there are the pioneers who have the guts and drive to hang their own shingle and practice as they see a need, dancing to their own beat.
This only confirms what we have been hearing all along, that an NP is able to perform in any environment given the training and the desire.
I was surprised that all of these roles are so very different from each other. It made me really think, "Do NPs really have anything in common?" I talked to so many NPs my head was swimming but it brought me to this article and...
I found that one thing we all seem to share.
The worry and concern we have for our patients. The need to care for them. The craziness of trying to figure out how to make health care affordable to our clients.
The bottom line is that no matter what field we practice in, we remain true to our first calling: that of nurse. A nurse is responsible for the treatment, safety and recovery of acutely or chronically ill or injured people, health maintenance of the healthy, and treatment of life-threatening emergencies in a wide range of health care settings. Now we just go a litle farther in our quest of helping those around us with our ability, skills, experience and knowledge bringing more to our patients. It really makes me proud to say I am a nurse practitioner.