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Family & Urgent Care ~providing complete medical care for RVers & Full Timers~ Don Fisher, F.N.P. 750 North Lake Drive -- Lakeside, Oregon 97449 Phone (541) 759-4755 -- Fax (541)759-3196 1-877-332-0533 |
| Remember your Old Family Doctor? |
A Family Nurse Practitioner is a nurse who has received additional education and training necessary to function in the role of primary care provider, performing many of the same tasks as a family doctor.
A Family Nurse Practitioner may diagnose and treat patients, prescribe drugs, order lab tests and x-rays, perform minor surgery and refer patients to specialists when necessary.
A Family Nurse Practitioner may NOT deliver babies or perform general surgery.
A Family Nurse Practitioner is trained to treat patients of all ages through the life span.
A Family Nurse Practitioner must have at least six years of classroom education, including pharmacology, pathophysiology, immunology, and disease process, and clinical experience, including family practice, minor surgery, emergency medicine, women's health, pediatrics and geriatrics, in order to qualify to practice under Oregon's laws.
A Family Nurse Practitioner may practice alone, or in conjunction with other nurse practitioners and/or doctors.
A Family Nurse Practitioner functions with full legal authority under the laws of Oregon, and has done so since the 1970's.
Nurse Practitioners have been recognized as primary providers since the 1960's as a response to the shortage of doctors and high cost of doctors in rural and under served areas.
Nurse Practitioners have been shown through many research studies to be a safe and effective alternative to MDs in primary care while costing less.
Nurse Practitioners specialize in Family Practice, Pediatrics, Women's Health, Geriatrics, and twenty other specialties. A Nurse Practitioner who delivers babies is called a Nurse Midwife. Each specialty has a national certification exam.
Nurse Practitioners are recognized by insurance companies, HMOs, Medicare and other health care institutions as primary care providers with a the same rights and obligations as doctors. Nurse Practitioners practice in all fifty states, in the United States military, and for the U.S. Public Health Service as primary care providers.
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