Contact Information:
Degrees: DNP, FNP-BC
Read more about Guhwe in her 2018 "APP Spotlight" interview.
I am one of four nurse practitioners on the Inpatient Stroke Service. I am also Team Lead for the stroke and Neurosurgery inpatient APPs in the department of advanced clinical practice. My workday during the week and my workday during the weekend are different. They are both generally busy but my responsibilities tend to be different depending on whether it is a week day or not.
On days that I am staffing I get to work between 6:30 and 7 am and collaborate with the resident and the intern to be sure all the patients on the team have a provider. Then we round for the depending on team efficiency and patient census. Weekday rounds tend to be teaching rounds compared to weekend rounds. Most times work through lunch because there are always pages to respond to and patients to see while the residents and intern are at noon conference, and then spend the afternoon getting patients discharged or admitted, calling consults and following up on recommendations, working on progress and discharge notes, speaking with families, collaborating with the nurses throughout the day to coordinate care and be sure everybody’s questions are answered. I also try to find time for teaching/ exchange of clinically relevant information within the interdisciplinary team in the afternoon. The day is supposed to end at 7 PM when we sign over to the night team but in my many years on the stroke service I can say it generally ends around 8 or 8:30 PM.
On a weekend that I am working, I am the only provider on the service unless the census is high then a resident comes to help with rounds in the morning but they generally leave by 12 and I am covering the team by myself for the rest of the day. That means I am admitting, discharging, managing the patients on the floor, working on progress and discharge notes, speaking with families, collaborating with the nurses throughout the day to coordinate care and be sure everybody’s questions are answered so it is a busy day.