Maggie Mahar writes a wonderful column, "The Battle over Letting Nurse Practitioners Provide Primary Care." I couldn't have summed it better myself.
There is an interesting trend that I'm observing and don't necessarily see how this is going to turn out. I'm seeing more and more nurse practitioner's opening their own autonomous practices. Many of these offices set out to offer care that is personalized, covered under insurance, and of course high-quality. I'm also seeing more NP specialty/sub-specialty practices such as house calls, incontinence, and women's health. This is in a time when more physician practices are joining together in these conglomerations that aren't necessarily tied to hospitals. You'd be hard pressed to find a solo primary care physician these days yet nurse practitioner solo practices are popping up. The talk about the formation of accountable care organizations can be attributed to health care reform and the spurring of large multi-physician practices. What to make of this? I honestly don't know. Many people and patients have said to me "you should start your own prac...
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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).
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