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| A
spate of collaboration efforts is taking place across
the nation in which doctors are employing NPs and
advanced practice nurses to contribute to the workload
at hospitals, outpatient settings and geriatric
centers. |
At the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center at the Pennsylvania
State University College of Medicine in Hershey, Pa.,
three nurse practitioners work in collaboration with
physician teams in both the inpatient and outpatient
settings. The nurses educate patients about health care
concerns, from the importance of receiving flu shots
to conducting breast exams and, sometimes, see their
own patients for acute care issues. Among this group
of MDs, NPs and other health care professionals, working
together side by side has done nothing but benefit the
patient population, according to Tom Weida, MD.
"It works out very well," said Weida, associate
professor and medical director of Penn State's University
Physician Group, Fishburn Road Family Practice. The
help of NPs improves the efficiency of the practice,
he said. "They can help us meet patient access
demands better. It can allow better patient access for
the community."
Weida also has found that hiring the NPs, who are women,
helps improve the comfort level of female patients when
it comes to gender-related health issues.
"The nurse practitioners are female, so the female
patients are more inclined to get Pap smears and breast
exams than they are with male physicians," he said.
Not only that, but the NPs at Hershey Medical Center
have a strong interest in patient education, which they
bring with them when seeing patients, Weida said. "They
educate patients on prevention and lifestyle changes,"
he said. As a result, patients are more likely to consult
with physicians after having been educated by the NPs.
"It helps improve a lot of patient care. It opens
up the discussion for topics in lifestyle changes and
prevention with the doctors," he said.
Weida's team is not the only one to place NPs in collaborative
roles with doctors. A spate of collaboration efforts
is taking place across the United States in which doctors
are employing NPs and advanced practice nurses to contribute
to the workload at hospitals, outpatient settings and
geriatric centers. Many health care professionals believe
that such a relationship improves the efficiency and
quality of care, as well as lowers the cost of patient
services by having nurses conduct incidental services,
thereby allowing the doctors to use their time more
wisely.
Harborview Medical Center in Seattle employs NPs in
a range of settings, including urgent care clinics,
short-stay and limited-stay units, as well as in acute
and critical care service teams, including neurosurgery.
According to Cathy Ivers, recruitment and retention
specialist at Harborview, a network of NPs and physician
assistants was put into place to improve the quality
of care within a large medical team.
"High activity was the driver for the programs
here," Ivers said. "[We developed the programs
out of] a concern about maintaining quality of life
and navigating the system. They are an adjunct to an
already stretched system in place."
The NPs improve the workflow and communication among
the health care teams, Ivers said. "Nurses are
great communicators. They are used to dealing with a
multitude of service issues to help a patient get out
of the hospital. We recognize those services as making
a real contribution."
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