3 Special Resources Every Nurse Practitioner Must Have!
Becoming a confident nurse practitioner can seem like an overwhelming task. Frequently, providers feel stretched too thin as patients and employers continue to ask so much of them. If one finds themselves spiraling out of control trying to adhere to a long list of arbitrary standards, this article is for you! Here are three specific areas every nurse practitioner need to remember. Every provider needs a resource that is useful, intriguing, and intellectual.
Here are Some Great Resources
Useful Resources: Free apps to help you with dosing and diagnostics
• Emra Antibiotic Guide is a free app downloadable to your phone. The whole guide is easy to follow and gives you everything you need when prescribing antibiotics. It is also provides some diagnostic gems that can help steer you in the right direction for which antibiotics to use. It’s a great resource, especially if you’re working in the urgent care setting. Please note that this app is ONLY for antibiotics, and we suggest coupling it with Epocrates. Some other antibiotic resource is our antibiotic course for a small fee.
• Epocrates is a medical reference app that is downloadable to your phone. It checks for drug-drug interactions, contains a dosing calculator, and can identify mystery pills by shape, color, and imprint! There is a premium version where you can pay to unlock the extensive usage of the app, but their free version also gives you access to a lot of great information.
Intriguing Resources: Find ways to make your personality POP!
• What makes a confident nurse practitioner? Is it the number of sutures they can complete in an hour? Is it their patient reviews, or how much value they bring to the company? Think about someone you admire. Mostly, it is not the actions they perform that make them special, it is their character. The greatest resource that you have at your disposal is your personality. When talking with your coworkers, meeting with patients, or networking at events, your personality is what people see and experience.
• Some ways to expand on your personality are to start conversations with compliments and sprinkle in little quips while listening to others. It will show that you are paying attention and value what they say. Try to have a nice tagline or motto that you start the day with, something unique to you that people around you can recognize. Add funny anecdotes to interviews and give them something to remember you. Most importantly, just be yourself. You don’t have to exaggerate your personality. Just continue being you and your patients and colleagues will start to notice!
Intellectual Resources: Books that help you hone your skills in the workplace
• One resource you MUST have is our skills book, Advanced Practice Provider Skills Made Easy: A Practice Guideline. It is an easy-to-follow procedural guide designed to prepare advanced practice providers with the skills necessary to perform primary care procedures safely and competently. The author, Dr. Obi Oji, is a practicing nurse practitioner and academician, so this unique book offers hands-on clinical skills based on the latest evidence-based research. Every clinician could learn and use this book in clinical practice, and this is FREE when you register for a 2-day workshop near your city!
Every nurse practitioner is looking for ways to improve. By utilizing the resources from different categories, you’re more likely to become a well-rounded confident clinician. Continue finding resources that are useful, intriguing, and intellectual, then incorporate them into your clinical practice!