A Letter from Your Friendly, Neighborhood Nurse Practitioner

 I have been tied to healthcare for a while now. My career began as a bedside RN and has since grown into a provider role. As a bedside nurse, I worked in the NICU, but my experience as a nurse practitioner has all been in urgent care.  Urgent care, especially in contrast to the longer-term patient care of the NICU, is a unique setting. Each encounter is short, you only get a few minutes with each patient.  Additionally, since I am PRN and work only a few shifts each month, I rarely see the same patient twice.  How can I make an impact in a person’s life in such a short time period? This is a question I have wrestled with for some time and I’d like to share what the Lord has taught me. 

For the most part, urgent care is clinically fairly easy.  You see a lot of upper respiratory infections, urinary tract infections, and sprains and strains.  But every once in a while, you get the low back pain patient who may actually have an abdominal aortic aneurysm, or the patient with shoulder pain who in actuality is having a MI.  It’s the thought of those kinds of patients that always keep me on my toes.  

As I began to get more comfortable in my practice and more proficient at recognizing red flags, I was able to look past the medical problem and see the person.  I realized how simple kindness could change a person’s day.  I focused on showing extra kindness to my patients – asking them more about themselves and taking time to explain and educate them on their illness.  Health care workers have such an amazing opportunity to ask personal questions.  People will tell you about their sexual history, their substance abuse, their anxiety and depression (along with their unnecessarily detailed descriptions of their bowel movements and mucus secretions).   I have found, it is in these moments where patients often open up about the pain of their recent miscarriage, or the mother who they just lost to cancer, and I would get to share words of hope and encouragement.  Each time, I prayed those moments would have a lasting impact on their lives and push them to the Lord. 

Sometime later I had an encounter as a patient myself.  I went to a new dermatologist for a check up on some of my freckles.  It was a quick patient visit, not more than five minutes, similar to my work setting.  At the end of the visit, she simply asked if she could pray with me.  She said a quick prayer for me and was on her way to the next patient, but it had a lasting impact.  It empowered me.  I saw her do it.  It was easy.  It didn’t slow her down much.  And it made an impact for the kingdom. 

At my next shift, I was determined to follow in her footsteps.  I was nervous, but with every single patient I simply asked at the end of each encounter if I could pray for them.  There were some hiccups – like the time I forgot the patient’s name and had to look at the chart during my prayer (and yes, the patient did see me look at the chart to find her name).  But for the most part it was awesome.  Not a single person said no, and several were so happy and thankful that I took the time to pray for them.

Unfortunately, where I work we see tons of patients and the expectation on providers is to see, treat, chart, and discharge 4 patients every hour.  Because I take time to explain procedures and educate my patients, I’m really having to hustle to meet that criteria.  Often, I let that pressure dissuade me from praying with every single patient, but I have felt way more comfortable asking to pray for people when I feel the Spirit’s push.  But if I’m honest, I need prayer to be bolder and continue to pray more with my patients.    

Over the years of my practice, I’ve also learned two very practical ways to enter into gospel conversations with co-workers I’d like to share.  First, ask people about their spiritual background.  A friend told me about this, and I had to try it out.  I was having a chat with one of the other providers who mentioned to me her and her husband were separating so I went for it. I just said I was sorry to hear that and asked her about her spiritual background.  That question completely opened her up to sharing her faith journey and I was able to share the gospel and explain how followers of Christ are able to forgive the unforgivable. 

 The other practical way I’ve found to easily enter into to gospel conversations is to go on medical mission trips and talk about them with your co-workers.  Tell them about your amazing experiences and how much they would love it.  Just assume that they are believers.  I’ve found many times that it spurs great conversations about what they believe and gives me the opportunity to tell them about Jesus or encourage them to find community and deepen their relationship with the Lord. 

Thank you for letting my share my experience.  I pray it helps you in your own practice. 

                                                                        Blessings,

                                                                        Mallory Barakat FNP-C