Tuesday, December 6, 2016

I'm Baaaaack

Hello world!  I decided to stop blogging and focus on other things.  What I have learned in my time away from here is that I missed blogging!  I have transferred from private practice to corporate convenient care.  It's nice enough and it pays the bills.  I get to have some regular patients and build a small rapport, but it's not private practice.  There are many perks of working for a giant corporation, like benefits, matching 401K and paid time off (which I haven't had in 10 years!).  It is very reminiscent of hospital nursing with shifts, trading and competing time off and lots of paperwork.  However, there is no, I mean no office politics(love!love!love!).

A new demention I have ventured into is the front office.  As a retail nurse practitioner, you are the front, middle and back office.  I now get to check in, assess and treat and collect the copy at the end.  I take vitals, which I never have to question or ask to be repeated.  I don't have to wait until my patients are checked in by the front, and while checking in I can start screening.  I have been able to learn how to basically run my practice with the outline layed out for me.  I wouldn't recommend this position to a new grad, although many of my collegues have only worked in retail.  I feel like the experience I gained in private practice has helped me to develop my skills working in the retail clinic on my own.  It makes me a better practitioner recognizing the warning and danger signs and knowing when to refer to ER versus, urgent care, versus we can handle this over the weekend until you get into your primary physician on Monday.

Retail gives you guidelines, but having practiced in other settings, they truly are guidelines and not the holy grail of practicing medicine.  However, many nurses have also developed these skills in their previous settings as well, not just being an NP in private practice.  But, for me I think that helped.  I want to start consulting and branching to other fields of nursing now and I thought blogging would be a nice way to get some attention and make some more headway.  Hope you enjoyed this one and there should be a steady stream to follow.