This week, thank a nurse practitioner

For Nikki Chason working as a nurse practitioner at USA Health is a passion.

“Our patients are the most important priority,” said Chason, CRNP, RNFA, the lead advanced practice provider for USA Health neurosurgery. “There is a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that comes with knowing that you can truly help someone. We come to work early and leave late because we know at the end of the day, we have changed patients’ lives.”

This week, Nov. 8-14, 2020, is National Nurse Practitioner Week, which recognizes the care and contributions of the nation’s more than 290,000 licensed nurse practitioners, including 123 regular full-time and part-time nurse practitioners at USA Health.

As advanced practice providers, nurse practitioners deliver a variety of services at USA Health from managing busy inpatient services to facilitating rounds and seeing patients in a clinical setting. They also order and interpret tests, make diagnoses and provide treatment, including prescribing medications.

“I am very proud to be a nurse practitioner, as we play a vital role in delivering high-quality, patient-centric care at USA Health,” said Natalie Fox, DNP, CRNP, assistant administrator and chief nursing officer for USA Health Physicians Group.

Noelle Davis, CRNP, a nurse practitioner in the surgical trauma intensive care unit, said that nurse practitioners have a unique perspective that merges the practice of medicine with the art of nursing. “This empowers us to provide all of our patients at USA Health with the highest level of expertise and compassion, serve in leadership roles, participate in quality improvement and manage even the most critically ill and injured patients in our community,” Davis said.

Nurse practitioners improve care by increasing patient access to services, said Kimberly Thompson, CRNP, a nurse practitioner in pediatric surgery at USA Health. “With NPs as part of our pediatric surgical team, we are able to have a walk-in clinic five days a week for patients with acute issues or post-operative problems, and provide prompt inpatient and outpatient consultations that would not be possible otherwise,” Thompson said.

Advanced care providers at the Mitchell Cancer Institute work as a team with their designated oncologists to see walk-in patients when appropriate to improve the timeliness of care, said Theresa McLaughlin, director of clinical operations. “Our team of seven also assist with inpatient consults and rounding so that physicians can maintain continuity of care during clinic hours,” she said. “They are an invaluable resource to our oncologists in adding that additional level of care necessary to meet and exceed our patient expectations and experience with our services.”

Across the nation, nurse practitioners also have played a significant role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a survey by the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 60 percent of nurse practitioners nationally are testing, diagnosing and treating COVID-19 patients in a wide variety of settings.

Earlier this year, Fox led a USA Health initiative to establish a COVID-19 drive -through testing site to serve people in the Mobile area. “It has been a predominantly nurse practitioner-driven care process from day one, and I could not be prouder of the hard work that our nurse practitioners have put in during this pandemic to meet the needs of our employees, patients and community,” Fox said.