We’re taking a look at the nurses working in retail and urgent care clinics around the country. These locations are changing the face of healthcare and how it’s managed. Hear what Dodi Iannaco, a nurse practitioner at Virtua Express Urgent Care in New Jersey, and Angela Patterson, Chief Nurse Practitioner Officer at CVS Minute Clinic have to say about urgent care.

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Nursing Panel Discussion:

Jamie Davis:         Angela and Dodi, welcome to Nursing Notes Live. It’s great to have you here with us today. So I guess I’ll start with you first, Angela, why don’t you share with us your reason for becoming a nurse and something about your education and career path to where you are today?

Angela Patterson:    Sure. So ever since I was a young girl, I wanted to do something that was about working with people and helping and caring for people. From my youngest years, I thought about teaching and then nursing. And through high school I had a guidance counselor who encouraged me towards the nursing piece because I like math and science and I very much was drawn to the social services. So I went to college and got my bachelor’s degree and became an RN. And through work and interactions with another mentor, became aware of nurse practitioner practice and that just really resonated with me. So I was an RN for – and I practiced as an RN just for a couple of years before I was able to get in to graduate school and became a nurse practitioner and that was about 25 years ago. In terms of career path, when I first became a nurse and then a nurse practitioner, I always thought my interest would be around women’s health. And I do that for a number of years. One of the great things about nursing is that there are so many opportunities to get involved and do different things and just because of opportunities being in front of me and my willingness to try new things and just try and get some things on, I started taking care of pediatric patients. I did some international travel on medical mission trips. I taught. Eventually found that my love was really primary care and taking care of families and community-based settings and that piece in particular really stuck for me. But I’ve had a varied history of experiences and really thankful that nursing really put that in front of me.

Jamie:                   Thanks. How about you, Dodi?

Dodi Ianacco:     I think why I wanted to become a nurse, my mom is a nurse. And I have a great-grandma that was a nurse too. So I think I just really wanted to know how to help people. My mom was the person that the neighbors would call and say, “Hey, what do you think about this? So and so got hurt, can you look at it?” That kind of thing. She always really enjoyed that. And she was the one like stopping to pull over at a car accident to help. Things like that. So I think that I wanted to help people and I think that I wanted to know how to take care of my friends, my family members. I wanted to be that knowledgeable first like my mom. And then career path, would you like me to talk about?

Jamie:                   Sure.

Dodi:                    Okay. So I actually started out as a licensed practical nurse. Because, I don’t know, I just got to do that first. It was a sort of a one-year program at the time. I thought at the time that that was kind of what I was going to do. I got a job and really like it. And then probably within about six months, I realized that I was almost doing what the RNs were doing at the long-term care facility where I was working. So I want to be an RN.