The Role of the Hospitalist Nurse Practitioner

     The hospitalist role is a new role for all healthcare providers. It was first termed in 1996 to describe a physician who devotes his or her time to the care of a hospitalized patient. The role of a hospitalist focusing on the hospitalized patient helps relieve the burden on the Primary Care Provider (PCP) so that the PCP can focus on his or her outpatient population (Sullivan, 2008). The hospitalist coordinates a team of healthcare professionals consisting of physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists, case managers, social workers, and physical therapists to manage the care of the hospitalized patient (Sheridan, 2011). 
 

 

      A Hospitalist Nurse Practitioner is a nationally certified nurse practitioner who has no primary care or tertiary care practice outside the hospital. He or she is usually trained and certified as an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner but can also be a Family Nurse Practitioner, Adult Nurse Practitioner, Geriatric Nurse Practitioner and Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. The primary duty of a Hospitalist Nurse Practitioner is to admit and discharge patients, manage the hospitalized patient's care with the collaboration of a Hospitalist Physician, make rounds and write orders as needed, interpret laboratory values, make simple diagnosis, plan and coordinate discharges and rehabilitation, and perform procedures within the scope of practice (Sullivan, 2008). The salary of a Hospitalist Nurse Practitioner ranges from $70,000 to $100,000.

 

     The Hospitalist Nurse Practitioner specialty is rapidly growing to help close the gap between the large demands for but lack of available Hospitalist physicians (Sheridan, 2011). I work as a Hospitalist Nurse Practitioner in a small 20-bed rural hospital that sees an average of 6-7 patients a day. I work during the night and admit around 1-2 patients during my shift. I work closely with my collaborating physician and learn a lot from him things that are unique to the hospitalist experience that were not taught in The Doctorate of Nursing (DNP) program or even in medical school. I have learned a lot about how various acute care patients with diagnoses of pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, colitis, acute renal failure, pancreatitis, congestive heart failure, angina, transient ischemic accident and various other medical problems are managed in an acute care setting. Our service only sees patients with medical problems and we have to be careful to not accept a patient with an issue that may require surgical intervention as the surgeon in our hospital would manage those patients. We also only accept patients that are 18 years old or older. We also have to be careful to not accept patients that may require services that are not provided in our hospitals such as critical care, neurosurgery or cardiac catheterization. These patients would be transferred to a bigger hospital that has these services available. The position of a Hospitalist Nurse Practitioner can be challenging but is very rewarding as well.

 

Reference

Sheridan, T. (2011). Hospitalist: An emerging choice for nurse practitioners (Online Exclusive). Health Callings. Retrieved November 10, 2012 from http://career-news.healthcallings.com/2011/08/15/hospitalists-an-emerging-job-choice-for-nurse-practitioners/

Sullivan, L. (2008). The role of nurse practitioners- The hospitalist (Online Exclusive). StudentNurse.com. Retrieved November 10, 2012 from http://www.stunurse.com/features/new-role-nurse-practitioners-hospitalist