Real World NP

How did your entire visit get eaten up by getting the HPI? What are you supposed to do in a visit with the complicated patients with 17 chronic conditions?

I learned many time-management lessons the hard way in my first year of practice, and they're the same patterns I see in my NP students and new grads I've worked with.

In this episode you'll learn time-saving tips to help before, during and after your visits so you can be more timely with your patients (and do less charting at home and on the weekends!).

PLUS, download another cheat sheet for patient visit "quick text" templates and a sample complicated patient note. Check it out here: https://www.realworldnp.com/011-opt-in

Read the blog post here.

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Don't forget to grab your free Ultimate Resource Guide for the New NP at https://www.realworldnp.com/guide

More Resources:

Lab Interpretation Crash Course: https://www.realworldnp.com/labs

Digital NP Binder: https://www.realworldnp.com/binder

Diabetes Medication Workshop: https://www.realworldnp.com/diabetes

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Come follow along for even more tips and inspiration:

Instagram: https://instagram.com/realworldnp

Facebook: https://facebook.com/realworldnp

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Keeping your head on straight while juggling so many moving pieces in a typical day as a nurse practitioner is TOUGH.

I heavily rely on structure and routines to make sure I keep it all straight — and I don't miss anything!

In this episode, I go over my routines with new patients, annual physicals, follow-up visits and sick visits, so you can stay on track and make sure you've got all the info you need.

PLUS: my cheat-sheet I give all my students (and I used for the first year+ ... literally bringing it into my visits and checking things off as we covered them).

Download it here: https://www.realworldnp.com/011-opt-in

Read the blog post here.

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Don't forget to grab your free Ultimate Resource Guide for the New NP at https://www.realworldnp.com/guide

More Resources:

Lab Interpretation Crash Course: https://www.realworldnp.com/labs

Digital NP Binder: https://www.realworldnp.com/binder

Diabetes Medication Workshop: https://www.realworldnp.com/diabetes

------------------------

Come follow along for even more tips and inspiration:

Instagram: https://instagram.com/realworldnp

Facebook: https://facebook.com/realworldnp

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I love caring for patients with chronic conditions now, but it wasn’t always the case. Like so many new grads, I struggled with caring for patients managing chronic conditions -- where to start, how to proceed, feeling like we weren’t making any progress towards “control” of those conditions (diabetes, chronic kidney disease, hypertension, etc).

When I was a new nurse practitioner, I was incredibly focused on the diagnostic algorithms and medication management. Which, of course, is crucial to know, but isn’t truly what moves the needle in chronic conditions.

In this episode, I cover:

• What moves the needle in chronic conditions
• Normalize what and why this is so hard
• What my dog has taught me about caring for patients (and can help you too)
• A practical framework for navigating the management of these conditions

Read the blog post here.

**PS our brand new course Managing Diabetes, Hypertension and CKD in Primary Care is available now at realworldnp.com/shop

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Chronic care conditions are a big part of working in primary care, but they’re also complex, time-consuming, and stressful to treat, especially for new nurse practitioners. 

So this week, we’re going to do a walkthrough of how you can conduct these visits, but in a way that that feels timely, organized, and safe!

In this video, I touch on the 4 most important steps to take in each chronic care visit:

✅ Reconciling medications

✅ Assessing the status of their condition

✅ Identifying the red flags for the most common chronic care conditions in primary care

✅ Determining the extent of specialist care

Still feeling overwhelmed by chronic care visits? I've got you covered. We have a new chronic care course that helps you get oriented with the most common chronic conditions you see in primary care: diabetes, hypertension, and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Join the course at https://www.realworldnp.com/shop.

Read the blog post here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When I was a new grad, I thought I’d never master CKD. It was so stressful because, as you probably know very well, unmanaged CKD can lead to kidney failure. 

But the more I’ve learned and practiced medicine, the easier it gets. And now? I’m obsessed with CKD — it’s one of my favorite clinical topics to explore these days. 

So hopefully in this week’s video, I can share some shortcuts to understanding CKD and making patient assessment and care easier. 

✅ The basics of staging CKD

✅ When should you think about referring to nephrology?

✅ Assessment parameters for renal problems that you absolutely need to know

And, of course, more pearls of practice!

Read the blog post here.

Looking for more guidance on CKD? Join the chronic care course at https://www.realworldnp.com/shop 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Part 2 of our Resistant Hypertension videos, I’m looking at hyperaldosteronism, or high aldosterone levels, as a cause for treatment-resistant hypertension — and an underrecognized one at that. 

So what is high aldosterone? Where does it come from? When do you check for it? What causes it? If a patient has high aldosterone, what do you do next? 

Let’s dig in!

Note that assessing for this may be out of your practice comfort zone — and that’s totally fine! But it’s still important to know what hyperaldosteronism means for your patients. 

In this video, I touch on:

✅ What distinguishes primary and secondary aldosteronism - and why it matters

✅ Symptoms to keep an eye on when looking at the different ideologies for high aldosterone

✅ And how to navigate that always-tricky dance of testing and referral as a nurse practitioner

Read the blog post here.

Looking for more guidance on CKD? Join the DM, HTN, CKD Review Course now: https://www.realworldnp.com/shop

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Both pharmacists and nurse practitioners play a critical role in medication management for patients. 

But we don’t always understand what we can do for one another, which can lead to confusion, frustration, and missed opportunities. Finding ways to collaborate and build professional bridges, however, can improve outcomes for everyone. 

In this week’s video, I talk with Miriam Ahmed, a pharmacist based in Canada who also runs the educational Instagram platform, @rxnotes. We dive into important topics like:

✅ Ways nurse practitioners can increase their comfort level prescribing medications

✅ Tips on mitigating common errors when dealing with medication management

✅ How to navigate medical guidelines for prescription medications

✅ And tons of questions from the audience

Read the blog post here.

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Stressed about labs? Watch our free Top Three Mistakes New NPs Make Interpreting Labs training at realworldnp.com/training

Grab your free Ultimate Resource Guide for the New NP at realworldnp.com/guide

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Resistant hypertension is a common chief complaint in primary care clinics. But for new nurse practitioners, there’s a lot to sort through. 

In this video, I walk through the thought processes and approaches to managing resistant hypertension in primary care. 

✅ How to talk about medication adherence with patients

✅ The role of ongoing blood pressure checks — both in clinic and at home

✅ Considerations for current medications and dosing

✅ How to investigate the secondary causes of hypertension

Read the blog post here.

Stressed about labs? Watch our free Top Three Mistakes Even Smart NPs Make Interpreting Labs training at https://realworldnp.com/training

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Dizziness alone accounts for about 5% of all primary care office visits in the US. 

5%! That's a huge number. 

But as a chief complaint, dizziness is somewhat nebulous. The causes of dizziness can run the gamut from annoying-but-benign to yikes-let's-get-you-to-the-ER. So how do you sift through all the possibilities and uncover what’s really going on with your patient? 

In Diagnostic Approach to Dizziness, we walk NPs through the basics of assessing patients who are experiencing dizziness. We talk about:

✅ The four buckets of ideologies that your patient’s dizziness might fall into 

✅ The critical patient history questions. (And why it's important to drill down on what patients mean when they say they're CONSTANTLY dizzy.) 

✅ The diagnostic steps and key physical tests to run (and how to do them in a not-scary way for your patients!)

🚩And the red flags you absolutely need to watch out for 

Read the blog post here.

Stressed about labs? Watch our free Top Three Mistakes New NPs Make Interpreting Labs training at realworldnp.com/training

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Back pain — it’s truly one of the most common issues you come across in primary care. That’s why you need to have your diagnostic approach to it down pat as a nurse practitioner. 

And the sooner you get comfortable diagnosing back pain in primary care, the sooner you’ll feel confident helping your patients on their road to recovery. 

In this week’s episode, we talk about why you should really take a triage-based approach to back pain — among other chief complaints — plus other hot takes on assessing back pain such as:

✅ Red flags that are critical — if sometimes tricky — to uncover when taking a patient history 

✅ Key tests to consider when you're doing a physical exam 

✅ Should you order imaging or further testing?  

✅ And how to advise patients and set expectations for recovery

Read the blog post here.

Stressed about labs? Watch our free training: 3 Mistakes New NPs Make Interpreting Labs for what to avoid and do instead at realworldnp.com/training

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.