[MUSIC PLAYING]
Hi.
I'm Tiffany.
And this is a day in the life of a nurse practitioner.
Let's go to school.
Let's go.
I knew I wanted to go into the medical profession
after studying biochemistry for my undergrad degree.
I realized after doing consulting for a few years
that my passion really lies in direct patient care.
Have a good day at school.
I love you.
Give me a kiss.
A nurse practitioner is a health care provider.
So depending on what specialty you're in,
you can work in a variety of environments.
You can work in the acute care setting, in the ED,
be a nurse anesthetist, be a midwife, a mental health
provider, or you can work like me in primary care.
I've been a nurse practitioner for about 10 years now.
In order to become an NP, you do have
to hold a registered nursing license.
So I did work as an RN prior to becoming an NP.
Being an NP in a major city is amazing.
I love working with such a diverse population.
There are so many different cultures.
And I also get to see a large variety of cases.
I also love being able to utilize
both my Spanish and Chinese at work.
I work in a health care center within the family practice
department in primary care.
All right, first stop of the day, we're at the locker room.
Typically I start my day at 9:00 AM,
and I'm scheduled to see patients until 5:00.
So the first thing I like to do when I get into work
is open up the EMR, so the Electronic Medical Record,
and check for all my messages, my labs, my patient's test
results.
It's going to be a full busy day.
I'm looking forward to it.
Can you tell me how you're feeling today?
I feel short of breath for the last two days.
Using my medication, and I'm still feeling the same.
So short breath.
Would you mind if I examined you?
No.
Thank you.
Please, take a deep breath.
All right, good.
Again.
So I do hear some expiratory raising and your top lungs
and also the bottom portions of the lungs.
So I do think that we should start you
on an albuterol nebulizer treatment.
Now that we've completed the albuterol nebulizer treatment,
how do you feel?
Much better, thank you.
Much better?
Would you mind if I examined your lungs?
No.
Please, take a deep breath.
Thank you.
A quick listen in the front.
So it looks like the treatment really
helped improve some of the wheezing that you were having.
Since you're feeling better, what I'm going to do
is write you a prescription for this nebulizer machine,
and to give you a prescription for the medications.
If there are any other concerns, please call me or follow up
and let me know.
OK?
Sure.
Our next patient came in complaining of chest pain.
Can you show me with one finger where the pain is located?
It's mostly here.
OK.
And does it move anywhere?
Does it radiate anywhere?
No.
Do you have any numbness, tingling?
No.
Is there a family history of any cardiac heart disease?
There is, my dad.
Yeah?
OK.
So the first thing I'm going to do is examine, OK?
OK, so the next step would be to get an EKG.
So we just got the results back of your EKG.
And there are some changes on the EKG
that are a little bit concerning.
What I'd like to do right now is to start you
on some medications.
I'll probably give you some aspirin, nitroglycerin,
and oxygen to see if it'll help relieve some of your symptoms.
So let me get started on these medications,
and I'll be right back in a couple of minutes.
OK?
So now we're going to walk over and consult
with my medical director and colleague.
Hey, doc.
Hey.
I have a patient that came in today
complaining of chest pain.
There are some abnormal findings on here.
Let's see.
I see we have inversion, we have some ST elevations.
Is she's stable?
So she's currently stable but symptomatic.
So what I did--
What about vitals?
Vitals are stable.
So blood pressure is stable, so it
was oxygen and the heart rate.
And so at this point I'm going to transfer her
to the emergency department.
Yes, nice idea.
How are you doing after the dose of medication?
I'm OK.
You're feeling better?
I do.
There's a little less pressure.
OK, good.
Because of these abnormal findings on the EKG,
I do think you still need to be evaluated in the emergency
department.
OK.
So what I'll do is I'm going to call an ambulance
service for you right now.
And we will transfer you to the emergency department
in an ambulance, OK?
Thank you.
No problem.
Generally I get an hour long lunch.
But depending on the day, sometimes I'll
run over and see patients during my lunch hour
as well, depending on what the concerns are.
What I love most about my job are the patient relationships
that I have formed over the years.
I love the fact that I get to take care of these patients
throughout their years, and really help them
improve their health status.
So we're about to see our next patient who has complaints
of nasal congestion.
Because of the pandemic I like to make sure
I have all my gear on before I go in to see the patient.
And now we're ready.
Hi, how are you today?
I feel a little nasal congestion and cough.
Have you had contact with anybody that's been ill?
No.
Do you have any fever?
It was for very light fever for one day.
OK, any chills?
No.
OK, so now I'm going to assess you.
Very good.
Please take a deep breath, and out.
Again, OK.
So the good news is I don't see any ear infections,
and your lungs are clear.
But I would like to do a swab to check for COVID.
Would that be all right with you?
Yes.
Lean forward, please.
Thank you very much.
And we're going to get the other now.
So currently with the pandemic we
have a lot of concerns for flu like symptoms, COVID symptoms,
which are very similar.
And so many of our patient visits
are to rule out COVID or flu or strep.
And so these One Care machines are very important for us.
So good news, your test was negative.
I know that you had told me that you were fully vaccinated,
so you do not need to quarantine.
So I'm going to send to the pharmacy
a few prescriptions to help you with your cough.
But really rest, fluids.
And if you would like, you can return
for testing in a few days if you need to,
if the symptoms persist.
OK?
So now we're at the end of the day.
We saw three patients today.
Typically we would see around 20 more or less.
Now we're going to see if any urgent labs rolled through.
If there are any urgent patient messages or prescription
refills.
What we want to do is respond to these last few messages,
and get out of Here.
The best advice I ever got from someone
was the same advice I'd probably give to a future nursing
student.
No one ever said it'd be easy, but it's so worth it.
Thanks for watching.
Be sure to give us like and subscribe to Indeed's Channel.
We'll see you next time.
I hope you guys at home will really
enjoy this video because this is definitely not
my thing to film on camera.
But I really hope you found it helpful
for you to see what a day in the life of a nurse practitioner
is like.