A Nurse Practitioner's View

I am posting this for a colleague who plans on writing a book about nurse practitioners.   Seeking nurse practitioners of all specialties to submit stories about the experience of being a nurse practitioner. The NP may live in any geographic area. This may include stories about the role of NPs, patients, circumstances or the health care system. Selected NPs will be confidentially interviewed and audiotaped if agree to be part of the project. Please contact mga11@caa.columbia.edu

The latest nurse practitioner study conducted at Loyola found that "...the nurse practitioner reduced ED visits by improving the continuity of care and troubleshooting problems for patients." These are the type of studies that need to be done. I am sick of the studies pitting nurse practitioners against physicians. The "us" versus "them" mentality is old, tired, and doesn't even belong in today's argument. The time has come to move past this and figure out a way to make the most out of available resources while ensuring that each profession practices to the extent of their education, training, and scope. Do we really need another study to show that NP practice is just as good or better than physicians or do NPs make more referrals or would NPs order more tests to arrive at a diagnosis? Please, this rhetoric is insulting to the entire US health care system. In my opinion, nurse practitioners are not interchangeable with physician practice. We a...

Eat your fish, it’s good for your brain.” This is what every mother said to get the kids to finish their meal. As we age, there are many physiologic mechanisms that occur making memory a thing of the past. While remembering something your wife said thirty years ago is still there, what the heck did you do with your car keys? Here are five tasty ways to encourage memory after age 65, or before.  1. Vitamin B12 Cyanocobalamin (B12) is an essential coenzyme required in many bodily activities. It is necessary to make the heme part of hemoglobin and it is also an integral part of nerve repair. A deficiency leads to pernicious anemia. Subclinical vitamin B12 deficiency can cause pain, electric shock feelings, sleep disturbance, depression, fatigue and memory loss.  Your body needs a chemical called intrinsic factor to absorb B12 in the gut. Production of B12 declines with age, so foods containing B12 are essential to provide optimal absorption. B12 is found in meat, fish and...