Real World NP

LGBTQIA+ cultural competency helps not only our patients to feel safer, seen, and supported, but it also improves health outcomes. Many providers aren’t sure what that competency looks like, or even where to start. It’s more than the correct pronouns and language – but how much more? In this week’s episode, we talk with Terra Anderson, who uses they/them pronouns, is a somatic therapist, and LGBTQ...

If even thinking about a patient with syncope makes you feel a little lightheaded yourself, you are in the right place. Your patient passed out, so their family insisted that they see their PCP. Now they’re in your exam room, and you need a roadmap to see what happened, what is going on, and how we got here. Let’s talk about how to approach the visit for the patient with syncope in primary care, w...

Have you found yourself needing to give feedback to your MA or support staff – with no idea where to start? You are not alone. As an NP, your role is unique; you’re not the boss, yet you are expected to give some level of guidance and leadership. And when what a staff member is doing isn’t working, that message usually needs to come from you.   Let’s talk about how to give feedback to your MA...

Context is key for the pediatric patient with decreased appetite. Getting a sense of what is normal for the patient and their overall health goes a long way in deciding how to approach the visit. This week, let’s talk about where to start when you see these patients, and how to get the context that is so essential for these visits. ✅ What to know about the patient before you even walk into the ex...

Well child visits can be very intimidating for new Nurse Practitioners, even if you love working with children. There are so many questions to ask, so many developmental elements to consider – it’s easy to feel a lot of pressure not to miss anything in these visits. This week, let’s talk about ways to come into these visits with tools to make it easier for you and to set your mind at ease. ✅ Top...

Fatigue is a tricky clinical topic that can seem overwhelming in a primary care visit – sometimes even for the seasoned NP. Having a game plan can help with the stress of these visits and increase your confidence when you see these patients. In this week’s episode, let’s talk about what you need to know to be prepared for the patient with fatigue. ✅ Strategies to approaching diagnosis ✅ How to g...

Epigastric pain as a chief complaint happens ALL the time in primary care. And we all order labs to help rule out pancreatitis, but most clinicians feel uncomfortable with diagnosing pancreatitis in primary care. Even though it’s not that common, it’s certainly a red flag diagnosis to watch out for. In this episode I cover: ✅ The main causes of pancreatitis ✅ What labs to order and what to look...

Some chief complaints are more stressful than others. Abdominal pain is CERTAINLY one of them, especially for new nurse practitioners. In this episode, I give my top systematic hacks for diagnosing abdominal pain in the primary care setting to make sure you’re not missing anything and are providing safe care. Read the blog post here. ------ Download the FREE Ultimate Resource Guide for NP ________...

Patients presenting with an acute diarrheal illness is one of the MOST common chief complaints in primary care. They’re also typically worried, wondering if they need antibiotics AND usually want some sort of testing. My last episode was part one of assessing this chief complaint, and I focused on the important history questions, physical assessment and the most important risk factors and triage c...

Acute diarrhea is SUCH a common chief complaint in primary care. In this week’s episode I’m covering acute diarrhea diagnosis for new nurse practitioners in primary care.  Including: The approach to diagnosis What “doorways” to keep track of The most important history questions Triaging the most dangerous presentations Whether to order labs or not! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for m...

The transition from RN to NP is TOUGH. It's exhausting, stressful, but oh so worth it. We need to be careful, though, because too much stress and not enough strategic prevention can lead to burnout and something called compassion fatigue, which can fizzle out our drive and passion-- and worse, may even lead to leaving the profession altogether. In this episode, I'm covering: - The risk factors, si...

Prescribing weight loss medications in primary care is SUCH a common challenge for new nurse practitioners. It feels like there are so many options and things to keep track of. This week’s episode is a follow up from the last episode about weight management counseling-- all about weight loss medications in primary care. This week I cover: ✅ Which patients are candidates for weight loss medication...

Weight management counseling in primary care is such an important skill, and it’s truly the foundation that patients need before we can start addressing weight loss medications. In this week’s episode, I’m covering my approach to weight management counseling in primary care, that will hopefully help you feel more confident in your visits. I cover: ✅ How to talk to patients, including actual easy...

I’m SO excited to share this interview with you. I’m interviewing two pelvic floor therapists -- a family nurse practitioner who has gotten additional training, and a physical therapist with a specialty in pelvic floor therapy. This is SO IMPORTANT. It seems like a hidden corner of medicine that we don’t learn about in school, or maybe it’s touched on when it comes to dyspareunia or urinary incont...

Interdisciplinary collaboration is SO important in primary care. It’s a tragedy when we’re each rockstars in our own bubble of a profession, but aren’t collaborating or communicating enough to fully understand what each profession actually does. I’m absolutely obsessed with physical therapy, and it’s a HUGE key to success for patients with musculoskeletal complaints in primary care-- but I didn’t...

When we’re nurse practitioner students, we’re so focused on the clinical aspects of our jobs that most of the time when we graduate, we’ve caught by surprise. There’s an entirely new role we need to step into as well: delegating, supervising and managing staff members. It’s especially tricky when you’re supervising someone, but you’re not technically their boss-- like medical assistants and nurses...

When I became a new nurse practitioner, I was so focused on learning the clinical pieces that it never occurred to me to learn more about the business of primary care. Once I was on the job, I realized how crucial it is to understand those pieces and how I fit as a clinician in the primary care office ecosystem. This is particularly relevant when it comes to scheduling patients. It seems like a mi...

As nurse practitioners, we primarily learn the clinical aspects of practice. For good reason-- we’re taking care of real patients’ lives. But there’s a whole lot more to learn on the job, from delegation and leadership, to navigating day-to-day challenges in the ecosystem of a clinic. I was SO focused on learning the clinical parts as a new NP, that I was caught by surprise at my first job. I didn...

One of the struggles for new nurse practitioners in primary care is managing women’s health topics, and knowing if and when to refer to an OBGYN specialist. We want to do things the right way and use resources we can trust. In this week’s episode, I’m interviewing Monica Carter, who is a family nurse practitioner who has practiced in the women’s health setting for the last 13 years. She dropped SO...

There’s SO much to manage as a new nurse practitioner, on top of developing your clinical knowledge, making a thousand decisions a day and becoming a leader in the healthcare space. The better your time management, the more time to get your work done and ACTUALLY rest at the end of the day. In this episode, I’m covering the rest of what we do in a day in the life as nurse practitioners-- inbox man...

So often in primary care, patients come in asking for testing for herpes, whether they have symptoms or not. Sometimes it’s because they “want to be tested for everything,” or are concerned about an exposure from a partner. As a new nurse practitioner, I wasn’t always confident about the best approach. In this week’s episode, I’m covering: ✅ When to consider HSV, and the unlikely ways it can pres...

Billing and coding clinic office visits are probably not the first thing nurse practitioners think of when they graduate. It's probably more like: Phew! I’m so so so glad that's over. What comes next?!  How am I going to find a job? I’m not going to worry about that right now because... ...I'm finally done with NP school! 👩‍⚕️🦄💪 But unfortunately, the skill set of medical billing and...

Billing and coding your office visits for for your office visits can feel overwhelming, tedious and too-hard-to-learn. But, one under-charge here and there may not seem like much, but when you add them all up... In this week's episode, though, I'm breaking it down SUPER simply (with a cheat sheet!) Plug the data in and out pops the right E&M code to use. You'll learn: ✅ How to accurately bill...

I recently got the question from a new nurse practitioner, “what do you do when you want to give up as a nurse practitioner?” I’ve definitely been there before myself, and with the stress of this last year and a half, I know a lot of other new nurse practitioners and NP students are feeling that way, too. In this week’s episode, I’m covering what to do when you feel like this, including: The most...

Patients coming into primary care with a chief complaint of hair loss can be so stressful as a new nurse practitioner. First, let’s normalize this. It’s a broad differential and can be tricky to parse out. It can also feel really stressful and emotional for your patient presenting for care, which adds even more pressure. In this week’s episode, I’m covering how to approach hair loss in primary car...