To conduct an interview with an APRN, I chose to interview an old coworker

of mine, Alyssa Braund. Alyssa Braund is a 30 year old female. She graduated with

her BSN in 2016 from Kent State University. She quickly obtained her RN and began

working at Mercy Health Youngstown. Her specialty was a progressive intermediate

care nurse. While working as a RN, she decided to go back for her Family Nurse

Practitioner at Youngstown State University. Alyssa graduated in May of 2021. As a

family nurse practitioner, individuals have a lot of freedom in job choices. Education

for Family Nurse Practitioners includes from infancy to geriatrics, so FNP’s are

marketable to any specialty. After doing clinical work, Alyssa became interested in

infectious disease. She started to work as a Nurse Practitioner this past fall with

NEO Infectious Disease. NEO infectious disease is a group of practitioners that deals

with all of the infection consults/follow ups. For example, an infectious disease

practitioner will be consulted for a patient with something like cellulitis or

pneumonia.

Alyssa described her day-to-day position as an APRN. Her position is hospital

based only. The doctors take the new consults, and the nurse practitioners see all

the follow-up patients. While visiting the patient, Alyssa is responsible for reviewing

the patients’ chart, viewing labs and pertinent information to that pertains to the

patient’s infection, visit the patient, and make a note for the day. After the doctor is

done with rounds, Alyssa briefs them over with all the patient information and

together they go to round in on the patient. As an infectious disease provider, it is

very important to know what sort of bacteria is growing and where. Sometimes it

takes a few days for the lab work to result, so a patient is first put on broad-
spectrum antibiotics until they know what they are dealing with. Alyssa stated that

as she is getting to know the different infections and treatments, patient cases start

to become more predictable.

When asked if APRN’s influence today’s healthcare system, Alyssa did not

hesitate to say yes. With the increasing number of patients seeking health care,

providers are being spread so thin. In Alyssa’s experience, by seeing the patient

follow-ups in the acute care setting, this helps do the “prep work” for the doctor.

Ultimately this helps to relieve the work of the physicians. Alyssa said sometimes

their census could be as high as 60 patients. For the doctor to go through each

patient’s chart, visit the rooms, and see new consults, there is just no way they

would be able to get it all complete in one work day. Nurse Practitioners help to

provider the gaps. Health careers.com gives a list of seven ways that nurse

practitioners impact the healthcare. It is stated that nurse practitioners help offset

lower numbers of physicians choosing primary care, NP’s provide services of equal

quality to their MD counterparts, using NP’s helps to contain costs, NP’s help allow

for expansion of clinics, the use of an NP helps give physicians more freedom within

their practice, NP’s are a key component of team-based care, and lastly, since NP’s

start as nurses, often patient’s are able to create a deeper bond with the NP vs Dr.

The next question for Alyssa was found to be difficult to answer. As she is

new as a nurse practitioner, she is still learning the process and hasn’t faced may

barriers yet. With the state of Ohio being a full prescriptive authority state, there are

not many barriers that are found in that aspect. The biggest barrier she has faced

thus far is negativity from the patient’s. She stated how some patients are still very
in old in the fact that they are demanding that they want to see the doctor. Wilson,

Pearson, & Hassey describe different situations where patient’s want to see the

doctor. Patients who typically want to “see the doctor” include elderly patient’s that

are not familiar with an APRN, patient’s with a serious diagnose, and patients who

are trying legitimize their illness by only seeing a doctor. These situations are very

different, but it is important to always handle this by providing the patient

education. While APRN’s can make “serious” diagnoses, it is important to also

include the doctor in before it is done. Therefore, if the patient is having a hard time

handling the news, the doctor can come in to attempt to help the patient calm down.

The last question asked in the interview was, what changes would you like to

see made for APRN’s? Being new to the NP field, Alyssa feels that continuing

education should be more available to APRN’s. The requirement for CE’s is 24 hours

total for an APRN. Alyssa talked about having more resources like conferences and

lectures to help APRN’s grow in their field of practice.

Overall, the interview with Alyssa went very well. Since she has been an

APRN for less than one year she has a very different outlook than one whom may

have been an APRN for 20 years. Another factor in the interview that could have a

major effect on the outcome is the fact that she is specialized in infectious disease.

An APRN whom may be specialized in family medicine will have a different day-to-

day life, as well as a different aspect of the profession.

References:

eCareers, H. (n.d.). 7 ways nurse practitioners impact healthcare. healthecareers.com.

Retrieved June 23, 2022, from

https://www.healthecareers.com/articles/career/7-ways-nursing-

practitioners-impact-healthcare

Wilson, A., Pearson, D., & Hassey, A. (2002, December 1). Barriers to developing the

nurse practitioner role in primary care-the GP perspective. OUP Academic.

Retrieved June 23, 2022, from

https://academic.oup.com/fampra/article/19/6/641/477714