Transcription:

Deborah Howell (Host): We can all sort of imagine how family doctors spend their days, but do any of us have a clue about what nurse practitioners do from dawn to dusk? Growing up, there were registered nurses but really no nurse practitioners per se. Now most hospitals couldn’t function without them. I’m Deborah Howell and in this episode of Pioneers Memorial Health Talk, we will learn just about how essential nurse practitioners have become and how they spend their days caring for patients. Rosanna Pritting is the nurse practitioner at the Pioneers Children’s Health Center in downtown Brawley. Rosanna is a native of the Imperial Valley, is bilingual in English and Spanish and has a unique perspective when it comes to treating her patients and communicating with their parents. Such a pleasure to have you on the show today Rosanna.

Rosanna Pritting, NP (Guest): Thank you. My pleasure.

Host: So, I want to start right off with something that’s confusing to me and hopefully a lot of people in our audience would love to hear. What is the difference between a registered nurse and a nurse practitioner?

Rosanna: A nurse practitioner is an advanced practice registered nurse. You must be a registered nurse before you can become a nurse practitioner. In the state of California, it’s also required that you have a master’s degree in order to become a nurse practitioner. It is additional education and additional clinical training in physical assessment and in diagnosing and the treatment. We are actually able to diagnose patients and to write prescriptions and order diagnostic tests and all of this is done through collaboration with a physician. We have multiple specialties of nurse practitioners. Family practice which is what I am. We do have clinical nurse specialists, nurse anesthetists, pediatric nurse practitioners, women’s health nurse practitioners. We are an extension of our physicians, our collaborating physicians. We help our physicians be able to care for more patients. We can manage patients on our own and when we feel that we need the assistance of a physician or we need the physician to consult on the patient; then we are obligated to make that decision and seek the assistance and the direction of our physicians.

Host: Well I couldn’t have asked for a more clear and precise definition. Thank you so much for that. What inspired you to be a nurse?

Rosanna: I’ve been a nurse for 28 years and I love my profession. I grew up with an ill grandmother living with my family and I helped with her care on a daily basis until her passing. Helping her with her personal and medical care was a normal part of my day and I feel this experience contributed to my desire to enter the nursing field. I also wanted to pursue a career which would challenge me, one that would require continual learning, and the nursing field has certainly provided me with that.

Host: Yeah, I think you found it for sure. Tell us about your specialty and the types of patients you treat.

Rosanna: Well I work – currently, I’m working in the pediatric population and I care for patients from newborn age to age 18 and provide well-child and sick visits. Because I am a family nurse practitioner, I am able to care for patients from newborn to end of life and at times, I assist in the Pioneers Health Center with adult patients whenever they require my assistance.

Host: So, from the full spectrum, from the smallest to our most long living patients. What do you enjoy most about being an NP?

Rosanna: As a nurse practitioner, I remain a nurse and I’m an extension of the physicians I work with and I’m able to care for the patients in an advanced capacity and my years of experience and education have complimented each other. My role still allows me the opportunity to care for patients but in a new role within my profession. What I enjoy the most is that ongoing contact with the patients.

Host: So, what does a typical day in the office look like for you?

Rosanna: My day involves both well-child and sick visits. Patients may be scheduled, or they may come in as walk-ins and I always have a team of strong support staff and great physicians always available to me to assist with any patient related issues. Well-child visits include physicals, immunizations, the laboratory interpretation, screening exams, while the sick visits include any type of problem the patient seeks care for. Sick visits include laboratory interpretation, coordinating care with outside specialty referrals, and ordering medications as the patients require it. Each child I see, requires my clinical assessment and diagnosis and my day also includes a great deal of teaching parents, patients and caregivers about the child’s condition and how to care for them.

Host: Sounds like a full day to me. But a wonderful one. What’s the most important part…

Rosanna: A very rewarding one.

Host: And a rewarding one for sure. What’s the most important part of the provider-patient relationship do you think?

Rosanna: Trust. It’s essential to build and maintain a trusting relationship with your patients and their families. People come to me and come to healthcare providers when they are ill and have concerns about their health and to help maintain their health. Patients need to be able to discuss – openly discuss their concerns and know they will be treated appropriately, professionally and compassionately; all of which results from fostering trust between your patients and their families and myself.

Host: Because if they can’t trust you, how are they going to trust you with telling you exactly what’s wrong with them or their child? Because some of these things are so sensitive.

Rosanna: Exactly.

Host: What’s the best part in your opinion, of working at Pioneers Children’s Health Center?

Rosanna: The strong support that I receive. The friendly environment and the community involvement on the part of Pioneers Memorial Healthcare District.

Host: Well, that’s something I’d love to discuss. Tell me about the community involvement.

Rosanna: This organization is consistently participating in community involvement not just in the city of Brawley, but in the Imperial Valley as a whole. And they engage their providers and engage their staff in participating in the community events. They are always attending health fairs, they are promoting health fairs, anywhere from health fairs to binational events. They are always present, consistently, and always available to the communities whenever they are called upon.

Host: Well that is a beautiful thing indeed. Now, you are the only, the single nurse practitioner at Pioneers Children’s Health Center?

Rosanna: That’s correct. At this particular clinic, I am the only nurse practitioner. But Pioneers Memorial Healthcare District has many, many nurse practitioners in many different departments. But in this particular clinic, I work here with three other physicians.

Host: Okay. Fantastic. Got it. Now as a nurse practitioner, you can also prescribe medications, is that correct?

Rosanna: That’s correct.

Host: Is there anything else you’d like the public to know about nurse practitioners?

Rosanna: I think it’s important for the public to recognize that we are not doctors. We are an extension of the physician. We are an assistant to the physician. But we remain nurses with advanced practice skills that allow us to be able to diagnose and to treat patients. And we are responsible to collaborate with our physicians. So, they need to be able to understand that there will be times whenever we will call the physician as part – call upon the physician as part of the visit because we need that expertise that the physicians have in their training, their experience, their education. So, it’s important for patients to believe that we are not a replacement to the physician, but we augment the services and the care that physicians provide. Many times, we see patients independently, but we are there to assist the physician in being able to see more patients, being able to reach out to more patients and collaborate with them.

Host: Absolutely. So, does a patient come to the doctor first and then maybe to you or vice versa or it’s different in every case?

Rosanna: Patients may come to me. I have patients that I have seen from birth that have not seen anybody else. I see patients from the other physicians when they are not here or whenever their schedules are full. They may ask that I follow up with the patient if they are not here. We are able to manage patients independently as long as when we recognize that we need the assistance or the collaboration of a physician, as professionals, we are responsible to make that call. But it’s completely acceptable for us to manage patients on our own as long as they are appropriately managed.

Host: Wonderful. It sounds like another wonderful layer of care for each and every patient and their family.

Rosanna: That’s a great description of how we perform in the medical field. It is another layer of care that we make available to our patients.

Host: Pioneers Memorial offers such a wide variety of advanced treatment techniques and caring staff to its patients in the Imperial Valley including nurse practitioners. For more information, please visit www.pmhd.org. Nurse Rosanna, thank you so much for your insight and for being on the program today.

Rosanna: Oh, you’re very welcome. Thank you.

Host: Now get out there and care for those patients.

Rosanna: Okay, thank you so much.

Host: Our guest today, has been nurse practitioner Rosanna Pritting and this is Pioneers Memorial Health Talk. I’m Deborah Howell. Thanks so much for listening and have yourself a terrific day.