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Great Read

Maggie Mahar writes a wonderful column, "The Battle over Letting Nurse Practitioners Provide Primary Care." I couldn't have summed it better myself.
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Lisa said…
Going to hijack the post here--
A friend of mine is an NP in charge of a clinic and thousands of patients in a state prison. He also has not taken a vaca.tion (longer than 4 days for Thanksgiving) in 3 years. He loves his job helping patients and because of his dedication, I am worried that he will not be able to let himself take a vacation (worries about patient abandonment and increased mortality while gone).
How do you deal with taking some time off? What do you tell yourself in order to give permission to leave? How do you trust your co-workers to maintain continuity of care? Thanks so much for any answer (or direction on where to find answers).
April 23, 2010 at 3:10 PM
Stephen Ferrara, DNP, RN, NP said…
Hi Lisa,

Your friend has to leave work at work. There is no way to be able to care for everyone all the time. Your friend needs to trust the covering clinicians to do a good job (especially if they are in charge of hiring them).

Vacations are needed to maintain a balance in one's life. If somebody is working constantly, something will begin to suffer.

Hope that helps!
Stephen
April 24, 2010 at 8:30 AM
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