November 13 to 19 is National Nurse Practitioner Week.
Darla Porter is a nurse practitioner with Covenant’s Joe Arrington Cancer Center.
“Nurse practitioners can assess, diagnose, and treat patients. We can prescribe medicines and therapies and we’re very valuable to the healthcare industry, ” Porter said.
Porter said there are a lot of nurse practitioners nationwide.
“There’s 220,000 nurse practitioners in the country, we have 15,000 in Texas,” Porter said. “We’re masters prepared, many of my colleagues have doctorate level degrees.”
Porter said at the Joe Arrington Cancer Center, they have seven nurse practitioners and seven physicians. She also said that she hopes to see the industry grow.
“We’re finding that nurse practitioners have really great outcomes, really develop a good rapport with their patients, and they really provide excellent care,” Porter said. “So we’re hoping the nurse practitioner profession will just continue to grow.”
