Nurse Practitioners in Community Health Settings Today

Abstract

During a typical week as a Family Nurse Practitioner, I provide primary care to uninsured immigrant patients on a mobile van, teach an undergraduate nursing course entitled Community and Environmental Health Nursing at the Catholic University of America, screen Hispanic women for breast and cervical cancer through Celebremos La Vida (Celebrate Life) at Georgetown University’s Lombardi Cancer Center and lead continuing professional education programs for health care providers who work with the poor and underserved through the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved (ACU)’s Pediatric Asthma Prevention Project and Early Childhood Caries Prevention Project. As a Family Nurse Practitioner, I am trained for a variety of practice settings, including primary care, teaching, research, and management. It is this flexibility and variety of work that I thrive on and that allows me the opportunity to be part of many exciting public health projects, while still having time for my family and community. This varied skill set allows me and other Nurse Practitioners to take on multiple roles in the evolving health system. The ACU is a non-profit, transdisciplinary organization of clinicians, advocates, and health care organizations united in a common mission to improve the health of America’s underserved populations and to enhance the development and support of the health care clinicians serving these populations. The ACU defines transdisciplinary care as a holistic approach to patient assessment and treatment through a highly collaborative team of health care professionals. This approach only allows health care professionals other than physicians increased decision-making powers in patient care; furthermore, through continuing cross-disciplinary education and regulated overlapping roles, greater efficiency in patient care can be achieved. This collaboration is beneficial to patients and could be a cost-effective way to improve the U.S. health system, and to expand it to treat those who currently go without regular health care. Furthermore, for people living with long-term illnesses such as HIV, hypertension and diabetes, Nurse Practitioners (NPs) can help provide long term patient education and preventive care.