Tips....

Organization, prioritizing, good critical thinking skills. Focus and know your resources, and how to use them. Watch and learn from nurses who you think have a good practice.

Because you are learned in the coordination aspect of things, your goal as a primary nurse is to get them there. Function, highest feasible.

Good luck!!

I haven't worked in a primary care clinic for very long, but I do feel like a lot of what I do is try to provide good education. We have a lot of patients that come into our clinic that have no idea what their hypertension numbers should be at or diabetics who are on insulin who don't know the S/S of hyper or hypoglycemia. The other thing that I encounter a lot of is trying to find resources for patients. Our clinic is just miles away from an Indian reservation so we have a lot of needy patients. We also have MAs that are what we call care managers who deal with the patient referrals and some education. I have found that these MAs appreciate it when I can help them out by holding meetings to explain disease processes, which helps them better explain things to the patients. And also just support and listen to their frustrations. Ultimately I am leaving this clinic because I want to develop my skills more, but primary care will always hold a special place in my heart.