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Working with Ethnically Diverse PA's and NP's

Jonathan Bland

Working with Healthcare Professionals/ HSC4060 S01

South University

Professor Nelva Lee

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In the medical field, it's like being the "Highlander", there can only be one person.
That one person makes the decisions about a person's health in a providers office.
What can be especially challenging in the medical field with Nurse Practitioners (NP's)
and Physician Assistants (PA's) are that they have to work with a Medical Doctor to
provide care. Only in 3-4 states is there an instance where Nurse Practitioners can work
on their own and not with a M.D., for the most part these two positions they have to
stand up to providers and tell them this is what is going wrong and that they are going to
treat them with certain medications. Medical Doctors have to verify the patients are
receiving good care. The NP's and PA's must have a motivation in everything they
know. Eventually they will get the respect from the MD that signs off on the care they
give and more then autonomously within the clinic or hospital. Their motivations should
be geared toward satisfaction-performance theory. This can be looked at the way the
provider cares for the patients and in return the Medical Doctors and DO's return their
admiration of the way the patients are treated by the NP or PA. In the medical field it's
all about what is best for the patient and how the patient is treated.
For example, back when I was just and EMT-Basic. I went to a patients house
who had Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, (COPD) and he was having an
asthma attack on top. My first instinct was to put the man on high flow oxygen, but the
rules with COPD patients at the time prevented me from doing so. I had the man placed
on a nasal cannula that was blowing out oxygen at 6 liters a minute the recommended
dose for someone with COPD. The patient state he couldn't breathe. I put him on a
mask with the same about of oxygen blowing into it which contradicted the amount the
mask was meant for, when we arrived at the hospital the doctor came to me. He asked

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why he was being treated this way. I explain the care that was initiated and followed
through-out our trip to the facility. When I told him the patient felt better after the mask
was in place he said, "as long as the patient felt better and his condition improved he
didn't have a problem with it". From that point on whenever I'd have to call in for an
order he trusted in my skills to acknowledge what the patients needed and would give
me my medication request. This was satisfaction of a job well done and my
performance was right along with what the providers wanted to see.
When it comes to leadership, I've always followed the lead by example. With NP
and PA's they can't lead by example because the care they must do can only be done
by them or the MD over them. A laissez-faire style of leadership can be good for MD's to
have when it comes to working autonomously with NP's and PA's. Although the MD and
DO's working with NP's and PA's must get to a level where laissez-faire style of
leadership can be completed. The NP's and the PA's can have the same level of
Laissez-faire with the staff below them. They can put orders in or notes for the patients
to be contacted. The care has to be done by the nurses below the NP or PA. There is
also a servant leadership. They do this to better the patients and the nurses below them
must serve the patients while also following the orders of the provider. Patient
satisfaction is being looked at by many professionals. Medical providers are also finding
that running medical clinics is more of a business where keeping the patients happy
often keeps them healthy and coming back when they need care. If a patient is unhappy
with the care they receive they often do not return. They want providers to be servants
to them as well. The provider should be a servant to the patient to ensure the patient
receives and is happy with the care at all times.

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Bibliography
Distribution of Physicians by Gender, February 2012. (2012, Feb). Retrieved June 3, 2012, from
Statehealthfacts.org: http://www.statehealthfacts.org/comparetable.jsp?ind=430&cat=8
Hooker, R. S., Potts, R., & Ray, W. (1997). Patient Satisfaction: Comparing Physician Assistants, Nurse
Practitioners, and Physicians. Retrieved June 3, 2012, from The Permanente Journal:
http://xnet.kp.org/permanentejournal/sum97pj/ptsat.pdf
Krupa, C. (2010, Oct 4). New tactics for diversity: Creating doctors from all racial, ethnic groups.
Retrieved June 3, 2012, from Amednews.com: http://www.amaassn.org/amednews/2010/10/04/prsa1004.htm
Lillie-Blanton, M., Rushing, O. E., & Ruiz, S. (2003, June ). Key Facts Race, Ethnicity & Medical Care.
Retrieved June 3, 2011, from The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation:
http://www.kff.org/minorityhealth/upload/key-facts-race-ethnicity-medical-care-chartbook.pdf
Maldonado, J., Maya-Silva, J., Menefee, L., & Xiong, S. (2010, July 25). The Effect of Patient-Physician
Ethnicitiy and Communication on Adherence Rates to Cardiovascular Disease Medications. Retrieved
June 3, 2012, from Stanford University:
http://smysp.stanford.edu/documentation/researchProjects/2010/ethnicityAndMedications.pdf
Taylor. (2010). Adherence to Cardiovascular Disease Medications: Does Patient Provider Race/Ethnicity
and Language Concordance Matter? Journal of General Internal Medicine , 1-6.

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