Black Communities and Healthcare | Avoid Dismissive Behavior Welcome Back & Happy BLACK HISTORY MONTH! For the month of February, I would like to highlight Black Communities and Healthcare. I will unpack ways a clinician can better engage this population. In today’s video, I discuss verbal and non-verbal communication that are perceived as dismissive to our patients. I hope after this month, you will gain a better understanding of this unique population and as always, thank you for your support!  Thank you for your support! See below for more resources: Motivational Interviewing resou ..read more

Black Communities and Healthcare | Address SDOH Welcome Back & Happy BLACK HISTORY MONTH! For the month of February, I would like to highlight Black Communities and Healthcare. I will unpack ways a clinician can better engage this population. In today’s post, I discuss what Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) are and their significance in vulnerable populations like the black community. Here’s a bit of an overview with an video for explanation: What are Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)? According to the World Health Organization, Social Determinants of Health are: The non-medical fa ..read more

Black Communities and Healthcare | Individualize Care Welcome Back & Happy BLACK HISTORY MONTH! Continuing our theme for the month of February, I would like to highlight Black Communities and Healthcare and today let’s discuss how we can start to individualize care in vulnerable populations. I would like to introduce a technique I created that can be applied to ANY population or demographic. Let me briefly outline the technique, The A-Cycle of Patient Engagement: ASSESS: As clinicians, we are always assessing our patients but in this step let’s assess ourselves as the providers. Let’s ta ..read more

Black Communities and Healthcare | Diversity Within Welcome Back & Happy BLACK HISTORY MONTH! For the month of February, I would like to highlight Black Communities and Healthcare. I will unpack ways a clinician can better engage this population. In today’s video, I discuss the diversity that you will find in the black community.  Like any racial/ethnic or cultural group, the black community is mulit-dimensional and each patient encounter should be addressed as case by case and not as the collective.  I hope after this month, you will gain a better understanding of this unique p ..read more

Happy March! Last month, my focus was treating the African American with Diabetes and the response was phenomenal! If by chance you weren't able to catch that series, I made a playlist over on my YouTube channel with those videos HERE. For the month of March, I'm going to dive into DIABETES TECH. Did you know that was a thing? Well, it is & I bet you & your patients are already participating in the tech side of Diabetes! Now let me say this...over the past year (because of COVID-19), we all have embraced technology in all areas of our lives & this doesn’t stop with o ..read more

Did you know hemoglobinopathies like Sickle Cell Anemia and Trait can affect the Hgb A1c reading? African Americans have an increased risk of inheriting sickle cell trait. In fact, about one in 12 African Americans has the sickle cell trait. This is important because about 12.7 African Americans ages 18 years or older have diabetes, therefore, many will have both diabetes and sickle cell trait. Why is this important to the NURSE PRACTITIONER? Depending on the lab method used, A1c tests in patients with hemoglobinopathies result in falsely high or low results. For the sickle cell trait, you wil ..read more

In this post, I would like to discuss a topic that I believe that providers should be aware of: CARDIOVASCULAR AUTONOMIC NEUROPATHY. To learn more about this condition that affects many with diabetes, read on… Diabetes-associated cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy (CAN) damages autonomic nerve fibers that innervate the heart and blood vessels, in turn causing abnormalities in heart rate and vascular dynamics. One of the most overlooked but serious conditions of Diabetes Mellitus Increased risk for cardiac dysfunction & mortality Risk Factors for CAN The Risk Factors that put a perso ..read more

Welcome back guys! Today, we are going to discuss Diabetes Self-Management Education & Support and the DSMES Process. Studies have shown us that to achieve better patient outcomes, DSMES is necessary. In fact, it is the cornerstone of diabetes management. Gone are the days where providers lead with an authoritative approach in patient care. It is shown that patient buy-in and the empowerment of self management is the most effective way to manage diabetes. By definition, DSMES is: The collaborative process through which people with or at risk for diabetes gain the knowledge and skills need ..read more

Hey guys! We are at the top of 2021 and like years before, many people are looking to establish new habits. One of the ways this is done is through Goal Setting. Now setting goals for our personal life is important but did you know it is beneficial for nurse practitioners to set goals as well? I think it goes without saying that we assist our patients with setting reasonable goals, in fact, in early 2020 I created content and resources to help our patients with diabetes as well our clinics set goals that would yield better patient outcomes. Today though, I would like to focus on the importance ..read more

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! Now that we are in a new year, its time for an updated Standards of Care. Every year, the American Diabetes Association publishes the year’s Standards of Care. It comes with recommendation and the areas that providers should apply to their care of patients with diabetes. This, as with any new updates or guidelines from other governing bodies, is something that as nurse practitioners we should review and implement regularly. I thought it would be a good idea to give an overview of sorts for my nurse practitioner colleagues. Now let me give this DISCLAIMER…you as a nurse prac ..read more