NewFNP returned from a quick yet lovely weekend trip to a nearby vacation island and was welcomed back to the clinic with a gloriously light day. Eighteen patients, two of whom were 'productivity boosters', a phrase newFNP has coined to describe patients for whom one signs a superbill yet who require minimal care, such as vaccine visits or family planning counseling visits.
The beauty of the light clinic day is that when a woman presents for her pap and casually mentions that she would like an IUD, newFNP offers to do it all at the same time. And voila! Five years of protection and a pap result on the way. Or when a patient happens to note that it has been three years since her last pap, newFNP does not feel a twinge of regret as she offers to do the pap right then and there and the patient accepts.
During a light clinical day, newFNP also has time to create an ongoing health maintenance flow sheet, something our charts lack and that has been bemoaned aplenty lately in staff meetings. Just give newFNP 10 minutes and she'll whip it up! Give her another 10 minutes and she'll research locums and on-call answering services! Hell, give newFNP an hour and she'll re-create every fucking form that sucks in the charts. Rocket science though these activities may not be, they are important in daily clinical life.
NewFNP also had an opportunity to continue her conversation with the doctor who so offended her the other day. Taking a chance, newFNP told her that she really had felt upset that it seemed that the doctor thought her voice was less important because she is an NP rather than an MD. NewFNP does believe this woman when she says that was not her intention. It calls to mind the importance how we use language and being mindful of other people. NewFNP is so incredibly guilty of intermittent foot-in-mouth disease. But it also made newFNP realize how important it is for her to a) feel like she is an important part of this team, motley though it may be and b) to feel empowered to speak out when she feels belittled or devalued.
If newFNP has a post-vernal equinox prayer, it is to continue with light clinic days. And to have J. Crew cashmere go on sale. And to have student loan debt bailout by JP Morgan Chase. Come on! Bail a hard-workin' sister out!
4 comments:
Hi NewFNP-
I was searching for nursing student blogs and came upon yours. I am actually an RN/NP student- one of those accelerated programs.
I really appreciate your blunt and straightforward take on your work and for blogging about it.
Helen (not associated with any blog)
I am an RN/NP student also and I adore this blog. I am almost done with my RN and feel that this blog helps me know what to expect when I get into the clinic.
I as well had "one of those rare days" in community health where you can
1) actually teach patients without speaking as fast as you can
2) make calls/print out educational information for patients
3) fill out forms/chart flowsheets
4) practice the standard of care that I would like to strive to at all times but do not have the time to do in one visit on a given day.
those days are just awesome!
For what it's worth, I think you did the right thing. If they're -that- sensitive about their pharmacotherapy, there must be something "up", yeah?
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