A day in my shoes

Not all orthopedic nurse practitioners are the same, therefore, our job duties vary. My clinic is outpatient based, meaning that most of my patients that come through the door are ambulatory. Of course, we get those with acute injuries that come in via an assistive device (wheelchairs, crutches, ect.). I serve a rural area in south Mississippi. I did not grow up here, but it is where I call home. The area has a state of the art hospital (in my opinion) for a rural community and this is where our office location is. The home base for our company is actually about an hour north of us and is where most of the surgical procedures take place. An hour is quite the drive, but that is where our clinic comes into the picture.

Yes, we are mostly outpatient, but we do see a majority of post-operative patients. Again, being a satalite clinic this gives our patients the option to not have to drive an hour every time for their post-op appointments. My head collaborative physician is like a father to me; heck, he might as well be! He is THE BEST doctor/educator that I have had the honor to learn from. He is THE reason I decided to push myself and pursue the board certification in orthopedics.

What do we see in the clinic on a typical day? That is a broad questions and the answer to that is typically anything orthopedic based. We have appointments, but we also do walk-ins which is unheard of in a specialty clinic. This allows any orthopedic acute injuries to be seen that day. I’ve had sports injuries, broken bones, major back pain, you name it we’ll see it. If me and the doctor thinks the patient will benefit from a higher level of care, we usually expedite our patients to our home base. This gives the patient direct access to an orthopedic surgeon IF surgery was an option.

So, in a nutshell you can call us an orthopedic urgent care I guess. No matter the title of the clinic, I am just VERY blessed to be in a field that I am passionate about. Every day I go into work, I am excited and ready to hit the ground running. My mind is set to positivity and that is what I want to give to my patients in a time in which they may be scared. I love the opportunity to educate whenever I can so that the patients understand their ailment and is willing to participate in their health to achieve better outcomes.