Community Hospital celebrates National Nurse Practitioner Week Nov. 10-16

Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Theresa Langan APRN, MSN

McCOOK, Nebraska -- Community Hospital is celebrating National Nurse Practitioner Week by honoring the two Nurse Practitioners on its medical staff.

Alyssa Curl, APRN is a nurse practitioner with McCook Clinic and also sees patients in Community Hospital's emergency department. Theresa Langan, APRN, MSN was recently hired to work with patients at the new Radiation Oncology Center when it is completed in the Spring of 2014.

As a family nurse practitioner, Alyssa serves as a primary health care provider seeing patients of all ages. Her primary job duties includes: Taking the patient's history, performing physical exams, ordering laboratory tests and procedures; diagnosing, treating, and managing diseases; prescribing medication; coordinating referrals; performing certain procedures and minor surgeries; and providing patient education and counseling to support healthy lifestyle behaviors.

Alyssa Curl, APRN

Theresa Langan APRN, MSN, nurse practitioner, joined Community Hospital in the Fall of 2013. Her role in Radiation Oncology at Community Hospital will be to support the Radiation Oncologist by obtaining history and physicals, doing extensive teaching with patients, assisting the physician with monitoring for side effects and prescribing treatments for any side effects as well as providing follow up with patients after completion of treatments.

She has worked in radiation oncology, as a nurse in the acute care hospital, long-term care, assisted living, and home health and hospice. Most recently she worked in Care Management and Utilization review while she completed her Master of Science degree in nursing. Certified in Hospice and Palliative Care as well as Pain Control, she is an expert in symptom management.

She obtained her Radiation Therapist certification from UNMC in 1979, her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Creighton University in 1995 and Master of Science in Nursing -- Family Nurse Practitioner from UNMC in 2013.

As the health care provider shortage continues to top the national agenda, it is important that the public be aware that there are more than 171,000 nurse practitioners (NPs) in the United States who provide high-quality, cost-effective, comprehensive, patient-centered care to patients across the country.

NPs are licensed, expert clinicians with advanced education (most have master's and many have doctorate degrees) and extensive clinical preparation who provide primary, acute and specialty health care services. In addition to providing a full range of services, NPs work as partners with their patients, guiding them to make educated health care decisions and healthy lifestyle choices. The confidence that patients have in NP delivered health care is evidenced by the more than 916 million visits made to NPs every year.

National Nurse Practitioner Week, November 10-16, 2013, is a time to celebrate these exceptional health care providers and to remind lawmakers of the importance of removing outdated barriers to practice so that NPs will be allowed to practice to the full extent of their experience and education. Nurse practitioners are informed, in touch and involved, making them the health care providers of choice for millions and a solution to the primary care crisis in America.

In Nebraska, there are currently more than 1,000 nurse practitioners. These NPs practice across the state in both rural and urban areas and in a number of practice specialties. All Nurse Practitioners in Nebraska are trained at the graduate level and hold current board certification. This advanced training allows Nebraska NPs to provide a full range of services for patients and families. Nurse Practitioners serve as a solution to the health care provider shortage, which is especially dire in rural Nebraska. All Nebraskan's deserve timely access to high-quality health care providers, but with 65% of all Nebraska counties considered Health Care Provider Shortage Areas, more must be done to increase the number of available providers. Nebraska's Nurse Practitioners are one answer to today's health care solution.

Nurse Practitioners in Nebraska have demonstrated high-quality, cost-effective and patient-centered care for over 40 years. NPs specialize in providing patients with access to preventive health and wellness services that focus on the total health of the patient. Nurse Practitioners encourage healthier lifestyle choices, resulting in healthier citizens and communities.

Clinical data that spans decades has shown that Nurse Practitioners have the ability to provide timely access to cost-effective, high-quality health care services. Please join us in saying "Congratulations" and "Thank you" to Nebraska's Nurse Practitioners.

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  • We all should be thankful for the wonderful, professional and personal job nurses do. Thanks

    -- Posted by dennis on Wed, Nov 13, 2013, at 2:51 PM
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