APRN Interview

Alison Fowlow was generous to do an interview and answer the following

questions below, which will be discussed in further depth. She is a wonderful

provider and has worked with so many fortunate patients through her career,

including myself. Starting off the interview she told me a little bit about herself.

Tell me about yourself

Alison Fowlow, she has a Family Nurse Practitioner degree. She got her

masters from Carlow university. She was initially an RN, where she was a manager

in a labor delivery and postpartum unit for many years. She went back to school to

obtain her masters and after graduation she worked as a Family Nurse practitioner

in an office setting as a primary care provider. She decided this was not the right

setting for her goals and transitioned back to women’s health. She has been

practicing for 12 years. Next, we discussed the specialty she practices in and her

services.

Describe your APRN position, include specialty.

She is specialized in women’s health. She currently works in an

OB/gynecology office at this time. She provides perinatal care, OB services,

Gynecology services, routine visits, and she states she provides a lot of primary care

health care to patients who do not follow with anyone else. Services include annual

gynecology exams, pap smears, breast exams, and other diagnostic testing when
needed. Moving on she discussed the APRN influence she sees in today’s

healthcare system.

Do you see an APRN influence in today's healthcare system? If so, how.

If not, why.

She states there is a positive influence from advanced practice nurses in

today’s healthcare system. She believes that nurse practitioners spend more time

with the patients than a PCP, which many patients seem to agree with that when

asked as well. She states that nurse practitioners are beneficial to the care when

on board.

What are some of the barriers that APRNs face?

She states that there are a lot of insurance barriers that APRNs face. Other

issues she states she faces include patients researching symptoms on Google and

self-diagnosing. Another barrier she stated was noncompliance with patients which

can include costs of treatments and costs of medications. After researching the

insurance barrier more, Nurse practitioners are only reimbursed for services by

Medicaid in select states and the gap between APRNs and physician in

reimbursement. The current guidelines remain unchanged since 1997, direct billing

allows APRNs to receive 85% of the physician would receive. When restrictions and

limitations are lifted, reimbursement is 100%. In these circumstances, the practices

are more inclined to accept Medicaid and have nurse practitioners employed
(Barnes et al, 2017). These are important things to consider when seeking

employment in a state or institution based on policies. Next, she discussed what

changes she would like to see made for APRNs in the future.

What changes would you like to see made for APRNs?

She stated she would life more recognition from physicians and equal

respect. She faces issues with being looked lesser than Physicians Assistants and

other physicians. She states she would like to see changes in the barriers faced with

insurance regarding the checklists that needed to be followed and met to qualify

for reimbursement. There are many positive changes that can be made to better

the futures of APRNs and equality is something easy that should be integrated

already today, yet many APRNs face this issue.

Conclusion

Alison Fowlow had many great points to discuss and gave so much insight to

her successful career as a nurse practitioner with multiple different backgrounds, it

shows that everyone can find their match to practice and specialize. While

conducting the interview it was enlightening to see the issues nurse practitioners

face still in today’s world. Hopefully moving forward there is a positive change for

APRNs.
 References

Barnes, H., Maier, C. B., Altares Sarik, D., Germack, H. D., Aiken, L. H., & McHugh, M. D.
(2017, August). Effects of regulation and payment policies on nurse practitioners’ clinical
practices. Medical care research and review : MCRR.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5114168/