What Is a Nurse Practitioner?
We don’t just treat your illness. We take care of YOU.
The nurse practitioners at FamilyCare of Kent, Washington deliver the highest quality of care. They are board-certified family nurse practitioners with several decades of combined experience and thousands of happy patients. They include nationally recognized clinicians, teachers, and speakers who serve as members of the clinical faculty at the University of Washington and Pacific Lutheran University.
History of Nurse Practitioners in the US
The first nurse practitioners (NPs) in the United States were educated at the University of Colorado in 1965. The NP role was originally developed and designed to provide cost-efficient, more easily accessible primary health care in underserved rural areas across the United States.
Today, over 149,000 NPs are easing the burden on an overworked and often overbooked health care system by providing cost-efficient primary and specialty care to millions of people. Nurse practitioners provide similar diagnostic and treatment services as traditional doctors.
Nurse Practitioners Versus Traditional Doctors
Nurse practitioners cannot perform major surgery, but they can do minor office procedures, order diagnostic tests, treat disease, and write prescriptions – the things most patients need. NPs also go a step further by focusing more on preventive care and on treating people more holistically – the way most people prefer to be treated.
Research bears this out. Nurse practitioners enjoy an excellent patient satisfaction record nationally. Most patients surveyed said they found the highest quality of care consistently being delivered by nurse practitioners. They found NPs more concerned about them as people, instead of illnesses. According to Newsweek (Nov. 5, 2001), “In an age of assembly-line care, nurse practitioners take time to listen to patients and counsel them.”
Our nurse practitioners:
- Spend more time with you at a competitive cost compared to doctors
- Provide the information you need for smart health choices
- Concentrate on preventive health care – avoiding sickness and maintaining wellness
- Deliver highly personalized, all-encompassing (holistic) care
- Integrate your health beliefs into your care
Today, more and more people are discovering the many benefits of entrusting their primary healthcare to family NPs. Among the many services our family nurse practitioners can provide are:
- Obtaining and reviewing medical histories
- Performing physical exams
- Providing immunizations and preventive child care
- Providing women’s health care, including all non-permanent methods of birth control
- Diagnosing and treating illness and disease
- Identifying, treating, and managing chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes
- Ordering and interpreting diagnostic tests (X-rays, blood work, EKGs, etc.)
- Prescribing medication
- Prescribing physical, occupational, massage, and rehabilitative therapy
- Providing sufficient education to empower patients about their health decisions
- Referring to other health care providers
- Suturing, splinting, cryotherapy, and skin biopsies
One patient said it best...
“My last doctor visit was the last straw. He took less than a minute to write me a prescription. And we never even made eye contact. After that, going to FamilyCare of Kent was like stepping back to a time when health practitioners really cared about you as a complete person and devoted time getting to know you.”
For more information about our personalized family health care or to schedule an appointment, call FamilyCare of Kent in Washington at (253) 859-CARE (2273) or use our online appointment request form.
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