Absolutely not. The RN in a primary care role provide insight into disease management for patients. Many people live with more than one disease state and RNs can provide education on diet, equipment, and the management of these comorbidities.
oh ABSOLUTELY NO! A primary care nurse is the heart of the clinic, our duties and responsibilities varies from scheduling appointment, removing sutures, hanging IVs, giving vaccines, Education lots of patient education, vital signs monitoring, collect samples, such as mucus or blood samples, which can be studied in a laboratory to help diagnose illnesses and infections, dressing changes etc... Personally, I enjoy Primary care nursing because I am exposed to a lot of different diseases and illness in a more quiet environment- as a primary care nurse I get to float to the urgent care clinic that's part of primary care and I absolutely love it.
I am a nurse at a PCP family office. My job is a nurse care facilitator. I enroll our patients, who are high risk (too many hospitalizations/ER visits), the when needed, educate the staff and docs when needed, recommend meds, rehab, to docs about their pt’s, watch their gaps in care, make sure I know about my patient’ other physicians and what they say, try to make their med rec perfect, motivational interviewing, call pts after a hospital discharge to schedule a follow-up and review everything (believe me-that can be a huge mess!). I am not allowed to administer any medication or anything outside Chronic Care Management or Complex Care Management. Very stressful job.
No the RN in primary care does not just do vitals. The RN does panel management and preventive medicine.
Primary Care’s objective is to help patient’s deal with chronic illnesses in order to prevent exacerbations, ER visits and Hospitalizations.
Most RNs in primary care have years of experience and excellent assessment skills.
We also do vitals and immunizations, but some clinics usually have ancillary staff for that.
A role nurses have in primary care includes care management, educating and following up with patients with chronic illnesses on their treatment regimens (DM, HTN, COPD etc). Another role would be triage, usually over the phone, determining how imminent the patient’s condition is and if it is an emergency that needs to got to Urgent care or ER.
Vitals, exam prep, patient educatio, pulling reports of labs, xrays, specialist reports. Assisting physician with exams as needed. Med refills, referrals.
In addition what others have already posted, you may also handle triaging patient's symptoms, refills, send referrals, some offices manage INRs, nursing visits for BP checks, education or immunizations.
In addition to the above, you also administer medication, such as injections, breathing treatments, etc, assist with minor procedures, perform wound cleaning, and handle nurse visits (if your office offers that). It really depends on the office you’re with. Just stay within your scope of practice.
Yes, and office procedures set up, taking the intake history social stuff etc Med reconciliation
Some primary care offices have a lab and require you to draw blood.
