At Your Cervix Ladies!

You've all heard of speed dating where you have just so much time to meet and greet someone and then you're off to another within a very short period of time?
I just completed my very first version of the speed Pap the other day. Our company offers a service to the women in the community of a $5.00 pap smear once every 3-4 months. Any woman qualifies on a first come, first serve basis. The cost covers the exam and the testing. The women don't have to be official patients.

The process is fast with just a cervical or vaginal sample taken and not much conversation. "Nice to meet you! May I see your cervix please? The test results will come to you in the mail in 1-2 weeks." and off to the next one.

I have to admit that it was strange for me because I'm used to taking my time and palpating everything and getting to know the patients. I did 17 in the first hour! It ran from 1-4 and I did a total of 26 paps. Once I got into the groove, it was actually fun! The women all understood that it would be a VERY limited exam and that we are just looking for abnormal vaginal or cervical cells during this visit.

Some of these women had not had a Pap in 10 + years. I only hope that everything comes back okay on the results. I'm really glad that I am able to provide the service to many underserved women in my community.

So, I was at your cervix ladies and I hope that I was of service to you all!

Change of Shift Over at Crzegrl's Place

I'm so terrible! I forgot to put a link up to Change of Shift at Crzegrl's blog especially since she raved about my post. I was very pleased and surprised to praised by Emily regarding the post. Shucks, I might even get a big head!

Emily is such a huge role model for those of us NPs. She gets to do the really cool stuff liking flying in those rockin' choppers! I only wish I was so daring. She's also been doing some video blogging and I'm really enjoying those on You-tube as well. Wish I had such camera presence!

If you don't already know about the Change of Shift brought to us originally by Kim at Emergiblog, please go over to each blog and check them out..

Off I go to check out the other great entries to the edition myself...

Till later, be healthy, happy and safe!

Excuse Me?

Me: "Hi there. I'm Nurse Practitioner So and So and my NPI is blah blah and I need to call in an antibiotic for xxx patient please."

Pharmacist:"What is your name again? I don't need your NPI, I just need your collaborating MD's name."

Me: "You are aware that the medication that I am calling in is not a controlled substance?"

Pharmacist:" I know.. We always put the doctor's name on the bottle with a slash between his and your name."

Me: "Excuse me? I don't think that you understand how this works. I diagnose, prescribe and treat my own patients. You DO NOT need my collaborating MD's name on the bottle."

Pharmacist: "We always do it this though."

Me: "Not with this NP. I don't mean to be rude but if you don't fill this RX like the law states , that went into effect in 2004, I will recommend that my patients don't use your pharmacy."

Pharmacist: "Oh... I'll fill that the correct way then."

Me: "Thanks so much! Have a wonderful day!"

Sigh.....

I'm Such A Lucky Nurse Practitioner!

Just had to pop in and brag a little about my new early Valentine's present! I got a new laptop from the hubby. It's an Acer with Vista on it. The picture of the turtle was in there so I thought it might be a nice thing to look at. I'm having fun figuring out how it all works. It's pretty bad when things like this just make me giddy!
I've had the old laptop for two years and my kids have pretty much destroyed the thing playing their games on it. This one is off limits except for the hubby.
What are you planning for your loved one this Valentine's?
I'm still planning my husband's surprise..

The new job is going very well. The doc is impressed with my documentation. We are having our open house on Monday from 5:30-7:30 and I'm looking forward to seeing who will come out to see the new place. Patients are coming in for new patient paperwork and some are transferring from the other branch. Most are new and I'm taking that as a great sign.

Cheers!

NPs Need Prescriptive Rights In Order To Take Care of Their Total Patient

The following is a copy of a letter that we all need to send to the Florida Senators so that NPs can finally treat our entire patient! I hope that you copy and make whatever insertions or opinions and forward to them as well. Any patients who feel the same way, please send a letter from you as well letting them know that you are tired of not being taken care of properly and it's high time that Florida get on board with the rest of the USA. It's one of the last three states holding out. The addresses to the Florida Senators are at the bottom!

There is a shortage of healthcare providers in Florida. There are significantly fewer physicians and advance practice nurses and medically underserved populations as defined by the Department of Health and Human Services are the areas in which these shortages are most acutely felt. SB 972/ HB 515 by Senator Saunders and Representative Zapata is intended to improve patients access to care by permitting controlled substance prescriptive privileges for ARNPs whose practice location is in Medically Underserved Areas and Medically Underserved Populations as defined by Health and Human Services.

This bill allows ARNPs to meet the needs of their patients who require scheduled medications either for pain control, side effect management such as diarrhea, behavior modifications such as anxiety or attention deficient hyperactivity disorders.
Florida ARNPs have been prescribing medications with the exception of scheduled drugs since 1987. ARNPs are authorized to prescribe through a collaborative practice agreement with a physician licensed under Chapter 458 or 459 and may only prescribe those medications used within their scope of practice and contained within the protocol. However, ARNPs are educated to prescribe controlled substances along with other medications.

Nurse practitioners must pass two rigorous national certification exams before they can practice in this capacity. Nurse practitioners have been proven, in well controlled studies, to be as safe as physicians in providing care to patients.
As states have begun to allow ARNPs to prescribe controlled substances, no state has withdrawn or limited the ARNPs ability to prescribe. There has been no indication in any state that authorizing nurse practitioners to prescribe controlled substances directly increases prescription drug abuse. Florida is one of only three states which do not allow ARNPs to prescribe these medications to their patients who require them.
Schedule II: includes commonly used medications such as Adderal and Ritalin for management of Attention Deficit Diorder (ADD); Demerol and morphine for pain management.
Schedule III: includes medications such as vicoden and Tylenol with codeine for patients with moderate pain levels.
Schedule IV: includes ativan, xanax and valium for anxiety, ambien for sleep disorders and darvocet for mild to moderate pain.
Schedule V: includes medications such as Robitussin AC for cough and Lomotil for diarrhea.

I think that my patients deserve to be completely taken care of by their primary care provider. I cannot do that in the current practice setting of Florida. It’s a shame that such a progressive state is one of the three states left in the entire country that continues to restrict Nurse Practitioners. My patients ,who are in a rural setting, cannot afford to pay a separate (much higher) fee in order to have a tolerable, or hopefully better, quality of life.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this letter. Please support this bill and prove to Floridians that we do care for every citizen.

Senator Nelson
225 E. Robinson St., Ste. 410
Orlando, FL 32801

716 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-0905

Senator Martinez
356 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-0903

1650 Prudential Dr., Ste. 220
Jacksonville, FL 32207