An article appears in Health Magazine advising its readers " when its OK to skip the Doc ." But of course in doing so, nurse practitioners get slapped. You see, the article refers to convenient care clinics - a continually hot topic - and how their nurse practitioner staffed model makes it OK for them to treat minor boo-boos but aren't capable of treating more serious maladies. Now in all fairness, most clinics aren't currently designed to treat conditions beyond episodic-type care and health screenings though there are reports that say this trend may be slowly changing to include other conditions. I just don't understand why the inference is always that the NPs staffing them are limited to treating just those conditions as well. I know plenty of instances where NPs referred patients to other providers based on subtle signs picked up during a convenient care visit which might've otherwise gone unnoticed. Further, patients in these settings were easily abl...
This is my blog that will highlight current issues, trends and policies affecting Nurse Practitioners and the health care system today.