Responsibilities of an NP

I made a point to do two days a week with a pediatrician for my last two semesters (in FNP training), which really helped my knowledge base considerably. It amazed me that we weren't required to have this kind of a background given the scope of practice of the FNP. I saw a lot of very sick children, from neonates to teens. I'm not sure of the PNP but as an FNP I would have no problem calling for help on any child I thought was really sick (esp since around here only the docs can admit). I found my dozen years in the ICU which included a lot of sick peds helped hone my assessment skills.

Well our program for the most part was in semesters where we focused on one or two specialties. I did a full semester worth of clinicals with children. For an adult male who has not kids I was scared of my shadow but with that said they took great care of me. One thing that became obvious in the practice was that there were three levels of expertise. One doctor had over 20 years, one had about 10 and one had about 3... They did a lot of back and forth communication. During clinicals I was seeing children from days old to late teens. I was seeing children of people I knew as well as people I worked with..... I really thought it would be awful I really thought parents would treat a student like they had the plague (didn't happen).

Oh well I digress....

They were in constant communication, plus they had a reference library on hand. One thing is communication and it does not matter what the patients age is if you are in doubt reevaluate and confer or refer. I have the expertise and training to take care of a big chunk of the population and problems of the patients I work with. I have no problems with asking for help, referring, conferring....