Increase In The Number Of Nurse Practitioner Clinics
This past November 9 through the 15th was a special week for nurse practitioners throughout the United States. This week was National Nurse Practitioner week and for this year’s theme, they chose ‘Your Partner in Health The Nurse Practitioner’. The healthcare community all over the country was celebrating and recognizing this position and doing all they could to promote it as a career choice for others. Indeed, it is a growing field which is experiencing greater opportunities for nurse practitioners to be more directly involved in patient care.
Nurse practitioners are registered nurses who have pursued additional education for specific specialties and are licensed to perform many of the tasks required by routine care. They can write prescriptions, make routine diagnoses, and even run standard diagnostic tests. Not only are nurse practitioners a great asset to doctors, it’s now becoming more common for them to run their own practices which provide primary care for patients.
Appalachian Nurse Practitioner Clinic
Consider the Appalachian Nurse Practitioner Clinic in Dahlonega, Georgia as a great example of this phenomena. This clinic has been providing care to patients since 2006 and in that time, around 5,000 patients have been treated there. The HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) helped the clinic to get established so that patients in the surrounding area could avail of primary care. The great thing about this clinic and why it is so successful is that patients can get nearly all the same services that their local doctor would provide but the cost is significantly lower.
Because of the growth in the demand for affordable health care, we are starting to see clinics like these popping up all over the United States. The HRSA is offering grants for further development of such clinics. A further grant of $1.8 million has just been provided to the Appalachian clinic so that it can expand its operations. Providing affordable health care to those with financial difficulties is the main reason why the HRSA is continuing to support nurse practitioner clinics.
Canada is Seeing Much of the Same Happening
While nurse practitioner clinics are not catching on in the United States as quickly as some would hope, they are spreading like wildfire north of the border. A new clinic has just opened this week in Saulte St. Marie and this clinic can provide care for over 3,000 patients every year. The provincial government of Ontario has even developed a special program to encourage the establishment of such clinics in order to meet the healthcare needs of its citizens. One after another, nurse practitioner clinics are becoming a mainstay of the Canadian healthcare system.
Becoming a nurse practitioner is something that you should consider if you want to work in healthcare. There are many different areas that you could specialize in such as urology, family practice, cardiology and pediatrics. And with the current nationwide shortage of healthcare professionals of all disciplines, there will be plenty of work available for many years to come. In this job, you will benefit from a fantastic salary as well as benefits and you will also have the added peace of mind of stability as well as job satisfaction from helping others.
