RN Nursing Graduation

Last night was my soon to be daughter-in-laws's RN pinning ceremony. It's hard to believe that it was all the way back in 2001 that I received mine. I was so proud and nervous. I had no clue what my career and life would be like as a nurse and now as a nurse practitioner.

I have formed several friendships over the years as a nurse and a nurse practitioner blogger. Surprisingly enough, most have been through the blogosphere. I have always loved surfing through my nursing buddy's blogs and seeing how their careers and lives have been going. Unfortunately, for me, blogging has been put on the back burner for far too long.

So.... I will be making a concerted effort to blog more often. It will still be random, but more often. I also hope to have more time to read and comment more on your blogs. Hopefully, I will start getting more REAL comments instead of all the junk spam that I've gotten in the last few months.

Here I come! Watch for my comments and come back here and leave some again and let's see if we can get the blog roll started again!

Nurse Practitioners Walk The Line

I often find myself wishing for the good old days when your family doctor was truly a part of your community. Back in the prairie days, docs and teachers would rotate staying in family's homes and often ate dinner with people in their community. People appreciated their care and the medical provider had a vested interest in helping people. Too often, many health care providers don't really know anything about their patients and aspects that influence the decisions they make in life. We are such a litigious society and providers are all about the numbers game. I have socialized with patients outside of taking care of them at work. (My husband and I have gone to the movies with a patient and her daughter, and they have come to our home for dinner) That doesn't mean that I would ever do something for them extraordinarily or outside what the normal care would entail. They know that once I leave work, I don't cross that line again until I clock in the next morning. You have to make hard fast boundaries such as I NEVER write any controls for anyone that I have ever seen outside work. I don't show favoritism in scheduling or callbacks. I don't discuss their healthcare outside of the office. If they need a script for something, they have to see me in the office and it's all documented in their chart.
I work in a very small community and every day people ask me how so and so is doing or that so and so sent me to see you because you take such great care of them and you really listen to their concerns. I find it stupid that I cannot officially acknowledge that fact, due to privacy laws, that I do take care of people here. It's not like they don't know already. They just passed each other in the waiting room for God's sake. Whatever happened to the good old days when people proudly proclaimed that you were their healthcare provider and you didn't have to look around to see if anyone else heard them?  I have constantly remind them that if they try to ask me a medical question about their care outside the office, that they are officially breaking their own privacy because it could be overheard by others at the restaurant that I was eating lunch at.
What you do think about it?

Top 25 Websites For Nurse Practitioners & Nurse Practitioner Students

I love when I find my blog listed as one of the top NP blogs on the net! I am really trying hard to get back to blogging and finding my voice again. The office has been really busy and we still haven't found another MD to work in our small town. I'm getting tired but am hanging on! Enjoy looking through their links and I will be doing it too so I can find some more great NPs to follow myself!

Top 25 Websites For Nurse Practitioners & Nurse Practitioner Students

Speaking about Cold and Flu Differences On The Radio

Hello to all who are reading my Nurse Practitioner blog! I had a busy week at the office and helping my husband on The Retro Club Show on 96.5 The Jet Saturdays from 1-3. To listen, go to the Retro Replay tab and click on the links. I've been enjoying myself and hope to get some feedback on the website from listeners. I am trying to be totally conversational like I am in the office.

What is your style in the office? Most NPs are interested in the entire patient. This makes me run behind in the office. I guess as long as I'm worth the wait, I will continue to do it. I tell my patients to tap their watch at the beginning of the visit to signal if they are in a particular hurry so I will know.

Medicaid is opening up for the next three years, according to Governor Rick Scott. What does this mean? I'm not really sure, but I hope that it makes it easier to qualify for older patients who aren't old enough for Medicare and can't afford insurance. We will see! I do know that it will make for several more patients in the office that I work in and we need help! Can't seem to find a doctor who wants to work in a small rural town.

Till then, I will keep on working as hard as I can to take care of them all. Cheers!

Geez At The Spam!

Great Gatsby! I turn my back for a second and my comment box is FULL of spam comments! Doesn't anyone leave legitimate comments anymore? It seems like most of coming from overseas too. Ugh!

Since I haven't personally updated about me in a while, here goes....

I am to be a Noni again soon and it's a girl! My daughter has picked out Virginia Lynn as the name so far. She's due on her brother's birthday.

Work is a crazy as ever and we are still looking for a physician to join the practice but haven't found any that want to work in a small rural town. Since we are one of two offices that are left, we are getting swamped with new patients. I think that my personal panel is full but we keep accepting more and more. This makes for a crankier me and a more tired me. But, I will prevail.

The hubby is starting a new radio show on Saturdays from 1-3 on 96.5 The Jet called The Retro Club Show and it will include a health tip segment hosted by me and I'm looking forward to it. Feel free to pop on over sometime and check it out.

If you enjoy this blog, please leave a real comment and not some random bullshit link filled spam. Thank you!