Nurse Practitioners & Physician Assistants
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In this section, you’ll meet many of the physicians and complementary medicine practitioners who may play a part of your care team at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) at Midwestern Regional Medical Center. But there are a few other members of your care team we’d also like to introduce you to—nurse practitioners and physician assistants. Every day they prove they are capable, knowledgeable, responsive, and compassionate. While the care these experienced and devoted healthcare professionals provide is supplemental to the superior care given by our physicians, they are essential to helping us provide our patients with the best care possible.
What Is a Nurse Practitioner?
A nurse practitioner (also referred to as a “NP”) is a licensed healthcare provider who works under the supervision of a physician. These clinicians have obtained masters’ degrees in nursing and are certified to practice in partnership with a physician.
NPs at CTCA are trained in oncology. They have extensive experience in providing education about cancer and cancer treatments at a level each patient can fully understand.
NPs are able to:
- Conduct physical exams
- Manage cancer symptoms and treat side effects
- Order and interpret test results
- Write prescriptions, including for chemotherapy and other cancer-related treatments
- Counsel on preventative healthcare
- Exercise autonomy in decision making
- Provide a broad range of diagnostic and therapeutic services
- Contribute to clinical education and research initiatives
How Do NPs Benefit You?
NPs at CTCA hospitals:
- Extend our physicians’ ability to care for your individualized needs
- Enable responsiveness, so that you are more quickly able to see a medical professional
- Ensure up-to-date status reports are relayed to your physician
- Expand and enhance your scope of care
Who Are the NPs at Midwestern?
Meet the highly trained NPs who help care for our patients at CTCA at Midwestern Regional Medical Center:
What Is a Physician Assistant?
A physician assistant (also referred to as a “PA”) is a licensed healthcare professional who works under the supervision of a physician.
The education of a PA includes an undergraduate degree, followed by intensive medical programs that prepare him or her to work alongside a physician. PAs are taught in a similar manner to medical students to both diagnose and treat medical problems in order to prepare them to offer an extension of a physician’s care.
PAs are certified by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants. The credentials that follow their names (“PA-C”) indicate their certification credentials.
PAs are able to:
- Conduct physical exams
- Diagnose and treat illnesses
- Order and interpret tests
- Write prescriptions
- Counsel on preventive healthcare
- Exercise autonomy in decision making
- Provide a broad range of diagnostic and therapeutic services
- Assist in surgery
- Be involved in education, research and administrative services
How Do PAs Benefit You?
Our PAs help us to promptly address your immediate needs and concerns. For example, they can answer questions you may have about treatment side effects. They are also able to address additional medical conditions you may have, such as diabetes or respiratory, heart and digestive disorders. Furthermore, they are able to quickly get in touch with your physician to let him or her know if you are having any complications concerning your disease. This allows our physicians to focus on your primary need—treating cancer.
PAs at CTCA help you to receive better quality care because they:
- Extend your physician’s ability to care for your needs
- Enable you to more quickly see a medical professional
- Ensure that your physician receives your most up-to-date reports
Who Are the PAs at Midwestern?
Meet the experienced PAs who help care for our patients at CTCA at Midwestern Regional Medical Center: