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By surgblumm
What’s In A Spoonful?
Robert M. Blumm, MA, PA-C Emeritus, DFAAPA
Being a grandfather or grandmother is one of life’s most rewarding experiences. While reliving the early stages of life with our grandchildren we can enjoy their movies and get a second chance at some which we may have missed. I was recently watching Mary Poppins with my grandkids and found it delightful and uplifting. For days, I was rehashing that famous song in my head, “just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.” As a clinician, I paused with some concern as I had to ask myself: What, actually, is a spoonful?
It is in the purview of physicians, NPs and PAs in pediatrics, family practice, internal medicine, urgent care, emergency medicine, retail health care and geriatrics to examine their patients who present with symptoms of a cold, allergy symptoms or a cough, resulting with a note recommending some form of OTC medicine. We commonly use the phrase “one or two teaspoons” and either document (or fail) to document this dosage. Either way, the potential for creating an iatrogenic poisoning or a drug reaction is quite high. It is always important to know what medications your patient may be taking - a critical practice which should accompany every patient encounter, whether new or not. Most PAs and NPs enter healthcare with the idea of working for 30-40 years but prudent attention to malpractice prevention can never start too early. Thorough, thoughtful practice can illuminate cross-sensitivity to prescribed OTC drugs. We need to look at OTCs as carefully as we would any prescribed medication, and it is equally important to know the age and weight of your patient, as a spoonful may be too little or too much. If the patient is a pediatric patient, the parent may be confused by the description of a spoonful and give a tablespoon, a teaspoon or a pediatric feeding spoonful. Children who are taking a drug, particularly an OTC drug, have a much greater possibility of a reaction.
For many of our senior citizens on polypharmacy, there are many potential drug-drug-interactions that will increase or decrease the effectiveness of their other medications making way for hypertension, severe hypotension or rhythm changes related to their cardiac drugs. For a moment, consider the patient on Coumadin. This drug has restrictions on other medications, as well as foods and alcohol which can greatly affect the INR and create a life- threatening bleed in the brain or in the GI system. I was scolded by my cardiologist a few years ago for taking a class lll antiarhythmic with herbal drugs or vitamins and minerals. He made me wait an additional hour in his office, then had me step into his private room and asked me, “What is it that you don’t understand about taking NO additional supplements or herbs?” As a healthcare professional, he was shocked at my actions. These substances can interact with my prescribed drug regimen to the degree that I could have developed Torsade’s De Pontes. He asked me if my need to take supplements - including fish oil, glucosamine and chondroitin - surpassed my need to live. His direct approach about my nonchalant attitude regarding supplements certainly got my attention!
Being careless can lead to a poor outcome for the patient, as well as a possible lawsuit. What can the collective “we” do to prevent a patient incident that is negative or life threatening? Check for other medications, review current drugs, look at age and weight and be cautious to write an OTC medication unless aware of all of the possible reactions. Is there anything else to glean from this? Another related concern is failure to document the other medications and to cross reference all contraindications, which are frequent causes for litigation involving PAs as well as NPs and particularly in the setting of the Retail Healthcare Clinic or Urgent Care Center. The same focus should apply to Telemedicine since it has become particularly popular during the pandemic. These concerns should encourage clinicians to consider how to best protect themselves, their professional futures and their families from litigation due to negligence.
Accuracy is the name of the game and is the mandate for all healthcare professionals but owning proper professional liability is the safest solution for potential error. It is not a coincidence that you are reading this today, but a heartfelt concern of a colleague who wishes all PAs and NPs a long and successful career. You do not want to create a life-threatening situation or worse. Our ultimate goal is to retire with professional pride and satisfaction – with NO history of careless nonchalance or, pardon the expression, “sloppiness”. Perhaps this “spoonful” of advice might help…
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By kelsey0123
So I'm conflicted and need some advice. I'm debating between PA and NP and the different routes to get to where I want to go.
For PA school: I believe I am an average applicant. I just graduated a highly rated 4 year university with a 3.4 in Biology, 500 CNA contact hours, and I am short a LOR from a PA. I want to be accepted for this coming cycle so I am behind on hitting that first submit button and I don't want to take more than one year off.
Nursing School: I just got accepted to a good accelerated BSN program to start this fall! I am not sure how competitive NP school is or how long they like you to work as a nurse before you can apply. I enjoy working the hospital floor! But I don't think I want to be a nurse long term. I am considering a specialty in family practice or public health.
Has anyone else gone through this struggle? Why did you pick the path you chose and which state do you live in?
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By ElleThePAC
I just moved to NoCal (Silicon Valley) area due to my husband's new job. My attending in Florida contacted his friend at a major university here and got me my dream job. I have five years of pediatric surgery experience and have been told that I am expected to train the other NPs in the group (who all have less than or around one year of experience in the subspecialty). I am less than one week into my job and today I found out that one NP (who has just over one year of experience) is being paid slightly more than me. Apparently this institution counts nursing experience as part of their calculations in salary. She told me what her starting salary was which was about 8k lower than me. She has since received a raise and her salary is now just a hair above mine. Part of this is because she was the only one running the show for awhile so they may have been given a performance bonus of some sort.
This was very deflating to me given that I have five years of experience being a provider, have an entire OR skillsket, and have been asked by the NPs to proctor them to first assist only to find out that they are being paid more than me.
Anyone else run into these situations in this area? From what I have read on this forum the nursing unions are very strong here in NoCal. Does this apply to NPs as well? When I received my initial offer from HR I asked if there was any room for negotiation and was told no because it was based on a scale for my clinical background.
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By thecaspareview
Has anyone seen this on change.org https://www.change.org/p/president-of-the-united-states-independent-practice-for-physician-assistants-and-nurse-pracitioners
Pretty much it's making the argument that PAs and NPs should be allowed to practice independly in family medicine to help with the opioid and mental health crisis. Thoughts? Some of the points seem pretty valid. Please delete if someone's already seen it.
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By CaiKru
Hey all,
I'm having some trouble deciding between becoming an RN or becoming a PA. I know there are many differences between the two professions, but that only seems to make my decision harder. Recently I just got accepted into my schools nursing program, but I'm not sure if I want to go through with it. For a very long time now I have wanted to be a PA but pretty much ruled it out because I thought the path it took to get there would be too hard. I have never been a straight A student (A's and B's with a rare C), and I know GPA is a heavily weighted factor in even getting considered for a PA program, not to mention the work you have to do if you get accepted! I am a very tenacious person. I know getting to PA school would be a challenge, but with all that considered, PA school is always on my mind. I feel like the only reason I am currently going for nursing is because I'm scared I would not be able to get into PA school (and if I don't then I'm kind of stuck). If anyone has any advice I would love to hear it!
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