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Practitioner Makes Perfect: A New Kind of Health Care Professional, the Nurse Practitioner Can See Patients, Diagnose Ailments and Prescribe Treatments

Posted on: Monday, 24 April 2006, 12:00 CDT

By Angie Toole, Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach

Apr. 24--Paul Tartarilla, ARNP, sees pediatric patients at White-Wilson Medical Center and is able to talk to parents and children, diagnose illnesses and treat them.

But he's not a pediatrician. He's proud to be a nurse.

Christina Johnson works in the family practice clinic at White-Wilson, seeing patients and following up on their tests, writing prescriptions and talking to patients about how to make better health decisions.

She's not a family practice physician. She's proud to be a nurse.

Tartarilla and Johnson are nurse practitioners, a growing specialty among registered nurses. The job gives him the freedom to operate as a primary care provider while being part of a team with pediatricians and other health care professionals.

A nurse practitioner has a role much like a physician's assistant, but with significant differences.

A nurse practitioner can work more independently than a physician's assistant, although they are usually work closely with a doctor.

For Tartarilla, the biggest difference comes from the path to get certified. He is first and foremost a nurse, something a physician's assistant may not have been.

"I became a nurse practitioner so I could actually become more of a real nurse," Tartarilla said with his trademark bluntness. "I found being a nurse before unfulfilling, because I had to do so much stuff that had nothing to do with nursing: paperwork, administrative stuff. When I started, a nurse could never tell a doctor what he or she knew was wrong with a patient; they would be out of place. Now, I have the authority to make a diagnosis and treat that same condition."

It's frustrating for so many nurses in the field just starting out, he admits. They start with an idealistic view of what they'll be doing, and then in reality they find they have little time for real patient care and contact.

"That's why the dropout rate for new nurses is so high," he said.

He knew as a high school student in Louisiana he wanted to become a nurse who worked with kids. The oldest of eight kids, he had plenty of child care experience behind him. Few men at the time were choosing to go into that field.

But, after going on a mission trip to Mexico, he became inspired.

"I just fell in love with children, and I wanted to do anything I could to help them," he said.

He became a nurse, but was passionate about doing more. Doctors on staff where he worked encouraged him to become a nurse practitioner.

He found out about the Air Force program of training and certifying nurse practitioners who play a valued medical role, and signed up. He retired after 20 years and began working in the civilian sector.

He has never stopped learning.

Tartarilla earned a master's degree in special education so he could do more patient care in the specialty of pediatric developmental disabilities.

The result is that he can offer his services in a more cost-effective way for patients who need more time: families with disabled or chronically ill children, or parents of newborns who need to learn how to care for their baby.

Johnson found that advancing her career and getting more training naturally led her toward becoming a nurse practitioner.

"I like that I'm able to affect the way patients look at their health, to help people make the right decisions," she said.

She can take time to do teaching and follow-up care with patients.

"And, health promotion is a big part of what nursing is all about," she said.

Being a nurse practitioner means playing a lot of different roles, Tartarilla said, including social worker, counselor, teacher, nurse.

The most common areas of specialty for nurse practitioners are family practice, adult practice, women's health, pediatrics, acute care and gerontology. There's also a growing demand for nurse practitioners in the mental health field.

For Tartarilla and Johnson, the best situation is not where they would be working autonomously. They both like the collaboration with doctors and other nurses, being part of a team of professionals focusing on what's best for the patient. Staff Writer Angie Toole can be reached at 863-1111, Ext. 438.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: Northwest Florida Daily News

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