Patient Load in Primary Care

Specialties NP

Published

Hello NPs and PAs,

Just wondering about working conditions in primary care. When you sign your contract, does it specify a minimum number of patients you must see during the year a (like MDs contracts)? Is it reasonable, are you able to do as much patient education as you would like, or are you running from exam room to exam room? Wondering about the actual amount of time you can spend with each patient. Also, how stressful/frustrating is primary care? My ideas are lofty so I may need a reality check. All candid responses are greatly appreciated, thanks!

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Did clinicals last semester with peds practice and the NP I was with saw between 16-25 pts per day and yes, it was busy.

I'm an adult health CNS now (in school for peds CNS) and I work nephrology and I do a lot of primary care. I see between 30-70 pts per day but I know these pts too which helps tremendously. Many are not acutely ill.

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OMG! I can't imagine up to 70 per day, you are super busy! But now I'm confused, you are a CNS but working in specialty primary care--I thought primary care was limited to NPs. For instance, at our allergy/asthma doctor's office there is an NP. Could you elaborate, I thought CNS were only in the hospital.

Any other responses to the original question are also appreciated. Thanks

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

CNS practice, like NP is run by the individual BON. I live in IL and our nurse practice act doesn't differentiate between NPs, CNSs, CRNAs, CNMs. In the nephrology practice where I work, we have 2 PAs, 4 FNPs and me (adult health CNS) and we all do the same exact job.

I have an APN role whereas some other CNS's have more the traditional CNS role: that of an educator, clinical expert, and/or change agent.

I knew going into the CNS role that I wanted the clinical expert role and it just happened that I don't work all the time in the hospital. However, I'm credentialled at five hospitals and do every 5th weekend call at two hospitals where I see nephrology consults, round on our hospitalized pts, etc..

I like the variety.

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Thanks so much for clarifying that, you seem to have quite a perfect fit in your career!

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Specializes in allergy and asthma, urgent care.

I work in a hybrid urgent care/primary care environment. I see an average of 24-26 patients a day. I find that I cannot do the amount of patient education I would like, due to time constraints, language barriers, and other factors. Sometimes I spend 5 minutes with a patient for a simple problem, but there are times I spend 60-90 minutes (and that makes for a very crazy, running way behind schedule day). I've learned not to get too frustrated when patients do not take their meds or are otherwise non-compliant. Sometimes the best you can do is minimize harm. I've found that I do a lot more pysch treatment than I bargained for. In my area, there is a huge shortage of mental health providers so primary care/urgent care often has to fill the gaps. I don't know if that holds true everywhere. I very much enjoy the variety of patients I see, and I learn new things every day. I work hard, I rarely get more than 10 minutes to inhale my lunch, but I love what I do. I am expected to see a certain number of patients per year and i get bonuses based on reaching and exceeding that goal. I have mixed feelings about that-I don't like the emphasis on numbers instead of quality, but I'm not going to turn down the $$!!

Hope this helps.

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Thanks so much for the info :)

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