Ask an NP – Why FNPs Are Important

00:00 So when I think of being a family nurse practitioner, I think the most important thing that I do is I describe it like being a almost like a waitress.

00:08 And I'm showing you the menu of all of your healthcare options, right? And I'm interpreting that menu for my patients.

00:14 I'm letting them know what is on the menu? What it might taste like, what are the benefits of all of these different procedures we could do? What are the cons of it, kind of walking them through, and just educating along the way.

00:26 When I went into it, I thought I was going to be making a lot of decisions.

00:29 And what I really found that I was doing was more showing up and being like, this is all the things we could do.

00:34 This is maybe what I would recommend, you know, going forward, but you get to make your own choice and here's the benefits and the risks of every choice associated with it.

00:42 So it's been, I think the most effective way to be a nurse practitioner, especially in primary care like an FNP is you are literally just you're a guide through someone's health care.

00:53 And that's been the most effective thing for me.