Nurse Practitioners Do More

Story and Photos by Brian Vandervliet/Web Editor

Joanne Eriole examines a patient at Northwest Family Medical Center in Tampa. As a nurse practitioner, she has gained increased independence. “I finally feel that I’m directing the care of the patient,” said Eriole, a ’99 MSN graduate.

Joanne Eriole, a nurse practitioner, is clearly appreciated. During her rounds at a Tampa health clinic, a patient kindly hugged Eriole before remarking, “You’re so good to me.”

Eriole's graduate education and advanced license allow her to diagnose, refer, prescribe medications, and more effectively educate patients. As a nurse practitioner, she has more independence than she previously had as a registered nurse.

Although supervised by a physician, she typically works without direct oversight. Eriole, who earned her Master of Science in Nursing degree from UT in ’99, relishes her new role as a primary care provider.

“I finally feel that I’m directing the care of the patient,” said Eriole, whose caring manner was demonstrated while examining a patient, Karen Gonzalez.

“She explains things on a level where I can actually understand her,” said Gonzalez, who brought a pen and pad for notes. “She’s explained to me that diabetes is in my family on both sides, and I’m a sitting duck for it. She says, ‘You’ve got to lose that weight’.”

Eriole’s employer, Dr. Michael Cromer, understands the value of the two nurse practitioners working in his Tampa clinic, Northwest Family Medical Center.

Charlene Tharp (left), a UT nurse practitioner student, talks with Dr. Michael Cromer. Tharp worked under Cromer’s supervision while earning clinical hours at Northwest Family Medical Center in Tampa. In July, she left for Tanzania to provide voluntary health assistance.

“In many respects, if they didn’t identify themselves as being nurse practitioners, many patients would think that they’re physicians because they can take care of many of the problems that I could take care of,” said Cromer.

The nurse practitioner role originated during the mid-’60s as a result of a shortage of physicians in rural states such as Colorado and Montana. Since that time, their numbers have grown across the nation, with more than 5,000 in Florida alone.

In 1971, Dr. Nancy Ross, director of UT’s Department of Nursing, began a nurse practitioner career within mental health. As she continues to work professionally, she has seen the role gain public understanding and respect. Ross predicts that demand for nurse practitioners, especially in Tampa Bay with its older population, will continue to rise.

Ross, who started UT’s nurse practitioner program in 1995, said that nurse practitioners have separate yet complimentary skills to those of a physician. Nurse practitioners, she said, are trained to educate patients while bringing a more “holistic” approach, making concerted efforts to look beyond the immediate problems and examine aspects such as diet, exercise and family dynamics.

“Nurse practitioners come out of the program knowing how to teach and that they need to teach,” said Ross. “In nursing, it’s about understanding the whole person and looking from the beginning of the relationship at how you can prevent problems, greater health care problems.”

Ross said that UT’s approximately 80 nurse practitioner students learn not only through graduate coursework, but through working under professional supervision. Because the program’s clinical requirements far exceed state requirements, UT nursing students are in high demand by area health organizations, she said.

“We have approximately 120 facilities that we contract with, so we have a tremendous variety of settings in which our students can be taught and mentored,” said Ross.

Serving the Underserved

As with the profession’s pioneers, many of today’s nurse practitioner students and faculty are motivated by a desire to serve the underserved. Maggie Iovino, a UT nurse practitioner student, frequently volunteers at the Judeo Christian Health Clinic in Tampa, a free clinic serving a low-income, uninsured population.

Maggie Iovino (left), a UT nurse practitioner student, and Dr. Kim Curry, a UT professor and nurse practitioner, listen to a patient describe his symptoms. Both Iovino and Curry frequently volunteer at the Judeo Christian Health Clinic in Tampa.

“It’s gratifying because when you go there you become a lifeline to these people,” said Iovino. “Many times, they have nowhere else to turn.”

Charlene Tharp, also a UT nurse practitioner student, will be traveling to Tanzania, Africa, for two weeks this summer to help provide care. Joining others from her Tampa church, Idlewild Baptist, she will work long hours as part of an effort to build an orphanage for children whose parents have died from AIDS.

A registered nurse since 1977, Tharp has been a volunteer since her teens. Her smile brightens when she discusses her plans to serve abroad. Although AIDS and poverty present enormous challenges for Tanzania’s population, she anticipates that her efforts might be focused on teaching health fundamentals.

“Certainly, there are things that you can talk about with the AIDS issue and ways to be responsible in your behavior and ways to protect yourself,” said Tharp. “But for so many of these people, it’s at a much more basic level than addressing just a disease process.”

"Patients appreciate a provider who will come into a room, talk to them, look them in eye, listen to them and make sure that they understand. That’s what nurses do very well."

Iovino and Tharp have been mentored by UT nursing professors such as Dr. Kim Curry, a nurse practitioner who volunteers at the Judeo Christian Health Clinic almost every week. In addition to her academic and volunteer work, she works professionally for a medical company providing service to disabled and elderly patients.

Curry said that nurse practitioners help improve care not just for underserved populations, but for everyone. Through a focus on education and preventative care, nurse practitioners help prevent future problems and expensive hospitalization. Patients, she said, are receptive.

“I think that nurse practitioners have been extremely well accepted by patients,” said Curry. “Patients appreciate a provider who will come into a room, talk to them, look them in eye, listen to them and make sure that they understand. That’s what nurses do very well.”