Duties of a Nurse-Practitioner?

At my family Dr's clinic, there's two or three NPs. This clinic has a revolving door as far as staffing goes.

My friend is in school studying to be an RN, I help out occasionally with an RN's horses, my Mom was a Respiratory Therapist, and I'm a firefighter working with paramedics and Emergency First Responders, so my medical knowledge is limited to those areas.

Your MC's work history makes sense to me. She seems to be following a logical progression of interest.

Some examples: Blood Draws, Lab Tests, Wound Care, Checking Splints, Connecting patients with a Physical Therapist in the office. A large part of the RN role is "patient education." The doc might come in and diagnose an issue, but the RN explains it and spends more time with the patient.

An RN may also do vitals when a patient arrives, (blood pressure, pulse, weight) and ask about medications and symptoms.

I believe ARNPs can write prescriptions, whereas RNs cannot.

bylinebree said:

I have my female protag as an NP -- but she's in the witness protection program, and has moved around a number of times so she's changed jobs a lot. Because of her need to "cover her tracks" she's also varied her work experiences.

So far, I've had her work in a hospital setting in orthopedics, then for a home health care agency, and now at a sports clinic working with collegiate athletes.

I know many NP's work in OB-GYN but I was trying to avoid the obvious.
But what do you medical folks, esp NP's, think of how I've created her work history so far? Does it seem to work? Any ideas about what specific duties she might have in a sports clinic?

Thanks!

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The NPs that work in my office are Pediatric specialists with a sub-specialty in Adolescent Medicine. While they deal with some Gyne situations (not OB--that's baby birthing. We don't do that here), they cover everything that my doctors cover.

A CRNP (Certified Registered Nurse Practitioner) is as close to a doctor as you can be and still be a nurse. My NPs do NOT do blood draws or shots. Those things are for the RNs, LPNs or the MAs to do. NPs see patients just like a doctor does, prescribes medications, orders labs--the whole kit-and-kaboodle. Now, their charts and orders have to be co-signed by a physician in the clinic (as all the trainee-doctors also have to be). The only "restriction" I know of is they can't admit a patient into the hospital. That has to be done by a physician.

Many of the drugstore-front clinics are staffed only by NPs (Family Practice, I believe). Many midwives are NPs who work independently with a physician associate, which is probably where you got the OB/Gyn connection.

Hope that helps.

bylinebree said:

I have my female protag as an NP -- but she's in the witness protection program, and has moved around a number of times so she's changed jobs a lot. Because of her need to "cover her tracks" she's also varied her work experiences.

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Please excuse this nit-picking question, but if the character is in the witness protection program, how is she getting hired in a job that requires the verification of credentials in her profession? Are all these places hiring her without checking? That might work if she was being hired as a medical assistant or home health aide, but to perform the tasks of an RN or NP, it seems unlikely that a legitimate medical office, hospital, etc. would hire someone without credentials. Or perhaps she is able to change the name on her certifications every time she changes her name? But then, her work history could not be verified...?

Actually, I can think of how that would work.

An NP has to have two state licenses--one as an RN and one as a CRNP. There also has to be a DEA license (federal) so they can prescribe drugs.

The vast majority of license clearance is done off of a federal database (sorry, I'm not in credentialing, so I don't know the name--just know it exists), so it would seem to me that the WP group would be able to insert the proper name, etc, when needed with all the required information. It wouldn't be that hard on a federal level.

Credentials and licensing wouldn't be a problem. And the CV background wouldn't be much of a problem either--just list her as a new graduate from a program in cahoots with the WP group every time and you're good to go. Since NP is something you do AFTER you achieve RN and that many RNs don't do straight off, it's not that surprising. And as for history as an RN, lots of contract and temp places. Why not sign her up with one that's created by the WP to cover that sort of thing?

I honestly don't have any problem with the possibility of this working.

The NP in my doctor's office does everything the doctor does. In fact, since she has a PhD she is addressed as "Doctor".