Nurse Practitioner

In nurse practitioner school, you have your, a lot of times it's online schooling that teaches you, you know, how to be a nurse practitioner and the book work. Of course, you have the nursing experience that is taught you as well. But after the nursing experience, after the didactic learning through your school, then you have preceptors. And, you know, a couple of my preceptors were very tough on me, and they corrected me, and they made me go back in with the patient and ask him several more questions, and it was very embarrassing. But I think I learned the most from those people. And so I guess when you're looking for a preceptor, those that invite you or want you to be a preceptor are typically ones that are going to push you. That's how I found.

It can be hard when people look to you to have the answer, and after sitting with them in the room and going through their history and exam, and you have a list of differentials but no answer, that can be hard, especially your first couple of years as a nurse practitioner. You learn to be comfortable with not having the answer and how to talk to the person and walk through the process to find the answer with them and for them.

As a nurse practitioner, there are beautiful and inspiring experiences and I love working with children. It can be difficult and there can be some trauma in nursing, especially when you have difficult experiences with children and families and especially the death of a child. That stays with you. It can be both a trauma experience and a triggering experience, but it can also be a beautiful and an inspiring experience. My difficult experiences as a nurse practitioner, such as delivering unexpected news, has pushed me to have empathy and patience and love towards the kids and families that I care for.