Nurse Practitioner Interview

Interview with Ms. Rose Woods, Gerontology Care Nurse Practitioner,

Little Elm Long-Term Care Center.

(The name and the place of work of the interviewee have been changed according to the request of the interviewee.)

Role.

How can you describe your role?

“I am a nurse, I love being a nurse and I use the nursing holistic approach in treating my patients. In utilizing the nursing approach caring for the entire patient, not just symptoms and disease aspects, I pay a great attention to the preventative measures. I enjoy possibilities of broad communication with my patients and their families realizing that I have a luxury of spending more time with my patients and their caregivers than my team physician.” (R. Woods, personal communication, September

I enjoy working collaboration with my physician; we have good working interdependent relations! Also, I have endless possibilities for building a sound rapport and trusting relationships with my patients and their families. I think I have an ideal position to know my patients, my patients’ environment, and my patients’ disease details thoroughly, as I work very close to my patients’ pool. As my physician pays attention to the symptomatic plethora of the patients, I have a possibility to see the whole picture and develop an approach to the treatment of an entire patient, not just symptoms. This is a beauty of my job, as I put my patients’ interests and well- being above all other aspects of my profession.“ (R. Woods, personal communication, September 7,

The nurse practitioner role in education the patients and caregivers is truly remarkable, as it provides the dual benefit as for the patients so as for the health care organizations. Patients acquire knowledge about their condition and signs and symptoms to report or manage, whereas the organization ultimately gets the decrease of readmission numbers and, therefore, cost-effective functioning.

Another great advantage of the NP Care Model is the consistent focusing on patients and their families. Kutzleb et al. (2015) explains:

The NP role in the care model is aligned with the concept of “clinical concierge” which provides counseling, monitoring, and stewardship activities. The activities of the clinical concierge include coordinating care delivery and aligning health care objectives, clarifying disparate care plans, reviewing and presenting diagnostic treatment options to patients and families, providing education regarding therapeutic alternatives, referral to hospice/palliative care as applicable, assisting in preparing patient and care team for discharge planning and follow-up disposition, monitoring of the electronic medical record through updated information acquired by daily rounds and chart review, and organization of family and team meetings as needed. (Kutzleb et al., 2015,