Why You Should Consider a Nurse Practitioner for Primary Care.
With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, health care is more accessible and in demand than ever before. A continuing increase in the senior population has resulted in an increase of health care utilization by this group. The implication of both of these factors means that the wait to see a physician will continue to grow. Clinics have responded to the increase in demand by utilizing nurse practitioners to provide crucial care.
Nurse practitioners are nurses with advanced graduate degrees and training in primary care. They are classified as mid-level providers that often work under the supervision of a physician. Their training and education make them qualified to diagnose and treat conditions generally seen in a primary care practice and they’re skilled in well -written progress nursing notes which are a vital tool for improving the quality of care. UC’s nurse practitioner program notes that the training that nurse practitioners receive qualifies them to make a positive difference in patient care outcomes.
Nurse practitioners in the primary care setting do many of the things that a physician does. This includes ordering tests and interpreting them, diagnosing injuries, infections, and diseases, and prescribing treatment medications. Nurse practitioners also help a patient manage chronic illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure, as well as educating a patient regarding the effects of a disease. There are an increasing amount of health care consumers that are choosing a nurse practitioner as their primary care provider. Here are some reasons for their decisions.
Unique Approach
Nurse practitioners have a unique approach to primary care due to the ability to spend time listening to and talking with patients about proactive steps to promote healthy outcomes. They utilize a personalized manner of advising patients about multiple strategies to lessen or eliminate symptoms of illness.
Quality Care
Because of the approach of nurse practitioners in health care practices, many health care consumers are extremely satisfied with the quality of care they receive from nurse practitioners. Patients of nurse practitioners feel that they get added care through the counseling they receive.
More Accessibility
Because the resources of physicians are often pushed to the limit, nurse practitioners are a great asset to have to practice in underserved areas. Both remote areas and urban population centers benefit from the accessibility that nurse practitioners provide. For the ageing population, the availability of local home healthcare agencies have proved to be an efficient and effective point of medical help as these allow providers to deliver care right at the comfort of their homes.
Low Cost
The utilization of nurse practitioners for the front line of patient care lowers costs for consumers and clinics. The counseling efforts of nurse practitioners pay off with healthier patients that require less intensive health care.
Prevention and Education
Both disease prevention and health education are a priority for nurse practitioners, which make them especially suited for a role in primary care. Talking with their patients about healthy lifestyle behaviors and how to implement them is an essential part of their role in health care.
In addition to primary care, nurse practitioners are being utilized in specialized areas of health care such as dermatology, oncology, immunology, and pediatric health. This information at www.gmercyu.edu; can give you more information about the fields covered as part of the preparation to be a nurse practitioner. Because of their increasingly wide use in the health care field, nurse practitioners are now in high demand. Learn more about the reasons behind the high demand. By focusing on the whole patient, nurse practitioners are delivering care that impacts the patient in every facet of his or her life.
