MCC celebrates Nurse Practitioner Week
FORT BRAGG » MCC’s very own Linnea Matthews recently celebrated 40 years as a nurse practitioner, an impressive milestone given how much time and energy clinicians dedicate to their profession. To celebrate this accomplishment, MCC would like to to share a little of Linnea’s history and the evolution of nursing from doctors’ assistants to independent providers in their own right.
In the late 1970s, Linnea worked as a nurse at Planned Parenthood in the East Bay where she was offered the opportunity to complete an 8-week course to earn a certificate to become a family planning nurse practitioner. She took the class, completed the preceptorship, and was then allowed to expand her scope of practice to include examining patients, ordering and interpreting tests, and prescribing medications specifically related to family planning.
In 1986, she and her family moved to the Mendocino Coast and she soon began working as a nurse administrator at Mendocino Coast District Hospital, but ten years later she found herself at a professional crossroads, so she went back to school to earn her master’s degree and become a family nurse practitioner, a medical pro
vider with a broader scope of practice.
During the 1980s and 1990s nursing underwent a metamorphosis. Nurses began specializing, narrowing their field of study to gain a deeper expertise in fields like pediatrics, orthopedics, urology, cardiology, women’s health, and more. Some nurses decided to transform their relationships with patients;
rather than being caregivers who carried out doctors’ orders, they became independent practitioners who could work in partnership with patients to diagnose problems and design treatment plans. Linnea was just such a nurse.
Nurse practitioners, along with physician assistants, are sometimes referred to as midlevels — their scope of practice is broader than a nurse’s but narrower than a physician’s. Within their scope of practice, nurse practitioners and physician assistants provide top- quality care. If a patient requires specialty care, nurse practitioners and physician assistants refer the patient to a physician specialist.
Sometimes people mistakenly believe care from an NP or PA is not as good as care from a physician, but that’s not the case at all. It’s like this: If you had a leaky faucet, you’d call a plumber. If — in the course of diagnosing and fi xing the leak — the plumber noticed the leak caused dry rot under the sink that threatened some structural damage, the plumber would call a contractor to take care of the more complex problem.
NPs and PAs are like the plumber. If you have a problem within their scope, they’re well qualified to handle the situation. If your “leak” turns out to be a more complex problem, they’ll call the appropriate specialist to address the problem.
At MCC, there is a teambased approach and every clinician is encouraged to work to the top of their license. This allows health educators, nurses, PAs, NPs, doctors, counselors, case managers and others to collaborate with each other to support each patient as much as possible. Sometimes NPs and PAs consult with doctors and sometimes doctors consult with NPs and PAs. Each person has training and experience that can be useful to the patient.
Our rural area islucky to have caring and qualified providers like Linnea who’ve dedicated their whole professional lives to their patients. Congrats and thank you, Linnea, for your 40 years as a nurse practitioner.
Here’s to many more! Lucresha Renteria is the executive director at Mendocino Coast Clinics, a local, non- profi t, federally qualified health center offering medical, dental and behavioral health care to people in the coastal communities of Mendocino County.www. mccinc.org