QUALITY MEDICAL CARE
A nurse practitioner
is a registered nurse with advanced training in preventing,
diagnosing and treating illness. Nurse practitioners prescribe
medicine, treat illness and administer physical examinations,
providing all-encompassing individual care. Nurse practitioners
also focus on prevention, wellness and education.
To become a nurse
practitioner, a registered nurse must complete an additional
two-year master of science in nursing (MSN) program and successfully
pass a national certification exam in his or her specialty.
All nurse practitioners maintain certification through proof
of ongoing continuing education and practice as regulated
by the national certification organization.
Physician assistants
are health care professionals licensed to practice medicine
under collaborative agreements with physicians. Physician
assistants are trained in intensive education programs accredited
by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the
Physician Assistant (ARC-PA). Physician assistants are required
to take ongoing continuing medical education classes and are
retested on their clinical skills periodically.
What Can Nurse Practitioners
and Physician Assistants Do?
-
Diagnose and
treat common illnesses and minor injuries
-
Prescribe
medication when necessary
-
Obtain medical
histories
-
Perform physical
assessments and examinations
-
Perform and
interpret diagnostic/laboratory studies
-
Counsel and
teach health and nutrition
-
Screen and
refer patients to specialists and other health care
providers
-
Provide education
to allow patients to make decisions about their own
health
In providing care
to patients, QuickClinic practitioners use guidelines established
in part by the Institute for Clinical Systems Integration
(ICSI) and a medical advisory board of leading physicians
in each community. QuickClinic has captured these guidelines
in proprietary software that helps in the following ways:
-
Provides consistent
diagnosis and treatment based on the most current medical
research and best practices
-
Captures medical
history and allergies to medicine
-
Alerts practitioners
to situations that should be referred out
-
Prints prescriptions
electronically only when proper conditions are met
-
Locks out
medications to which patients are allergic
-
Enables patients
to go to any clinic and still have up-to-date records
available
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