A BETTER APPRECIATION

I have begun to get a much better appreciation of the hard work that goes into being a provider in a medical office. Many of the medical offices allow anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes to see each patient. That is how the appointments are made regardless of how short or long the appointment actually runs. If the appointment goes longer than the allotted time, the patients scheduled after that appointment will have to wait longer making for a tense environment and unhappy patients. Many offices have shorter appointment times to allow for more appointments in the course of the day. This ultimately makes the office more money. This makes sense because more patients seen in one day equal more insurance companies that are billed and more co-pays that are collected. Afterall, the bottom line in the medical profession is to make money…isn’t it?

One of the offices I am doing my clinical in is a busy family practice office. I am still very slow and uncertain of some of the decisions that are made in the plan of care of patients with varying disease processes or problems. I have been averaging anywhere between 13 to 15 patients in an eight hour period. I can honestly say by the end of the day my brain is mush.  Many of the offices want their nurse practitioners (NP’s) to see anywhere from 25 to 30 patients in one day. I can only imagine…

Once the day is completed and all of the patients had been seen, then it is time to catch up on charting and make phone calls to patients. These calls are usually reporting lab and test results or returning phone messages that were taken through the course of the day. There is no such thing as an eight hour day in many of these offices. They usually run closer to ten to twelve depending on how many phone calls need to be made or how much charting needs to be done. I am only in clinical three days a week because I have to work for a paycheck. Working five days a week at this pace is going to be quite the challenge. I hope I survive! Maybe I should consider interior design. Hmmm…that could work...