Nurse Practitioners bring a comprehensive perspective and personal touch to health care.
The American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) defines nurse practitioners as clinicians who blend clinical expertise in diagnosing and treating health conditions, emphasizing disease prevention and health management.
They must have a master's or doctoral with advanced clinical training. They work autonomously and in collaboration with physician colleagues.
Nurse Practitioners can order and interpret diagnostic testing, diagnose and treat acute and chronic heart conditions, prescribe medications and other treatments, educate patients and their families on disease prevention, and make positive cardiovascular health and lifestyle choices.
Each area of specialty care may utilize its advanced practice nurse differently. In Cardiology, we are privileged to work very closely with our amazing physician colleagues, Dr. Barry George, Dr. Gangaram Rasa, Dr. Robert Drake, and Dr. Alix Tercius. The physicians are often pulled in many directions; along with seeing a full day of patients in the office, they are responsible for invasive procedures and interpreting cardiac studies at Knox Community Hospital, such as EKGs, stress tests, echocardiograms, treadmill EKGs, and more.
The KCH Cardiology Nurse Practitioner has a supportive role and does a lot behind the scenes. Some of these duties include answering patient questions or concerns, medication adjustments and refills, examinations, ensuring that the appropriate labs and testing are ordered for routine monitoring of cardiovascular diseases, and reviewing results.
When a patient needs to be seen urgently, the nurse practitioner often examines this patient. We will consult the cardiologist for their input and expertise in the plan of care when needed. We utilize our prior nursing experience to prioritize disease prevention and can spend more time with our patients, addressing their concerns.
KCH Cardiology has four Advanced Practice Registered Nurses: Kristin Baker, Bethany Heffelfinger, Misty Bailey, and Amanda Filler, who are happy to serve our community by providing quick access to cardiac care.
