Remember those “x-ray specs” they used to sell in the back of comic books? You’d send in your entire allowance, and in just 6-8 weeks, […]
Author Archives: Elizabeth Kirchner, CNP, RN-BC
What to Expect When You’re a New Parent With RA | Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)
Being a new parent is never easy, but it can be especially challenging for patients with a chronic disease such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Here […]
THE SHINGLES VACCINE: You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know | Vaccines
So this is new and fancy. Just when I thought I had the whole “shingles vaccine thing” covered, along come the JAK inhibitors to throw […]
When Patient Care Can’t Wait for Guidelines | Checkpoint Inhibitors
Raise your hand if you’ve heard of “checkpoint inhibitors.” OK, maybe don’t really raise your hand since you are probably sitting alone somewhere. Or maybe […]
Don’t Make Your Patient Visits Feel Like a Horror Movie
The scariest movie I ever saw was called “The Ring.” I’m not exactly sure what it was about, because I “watched” it while hiding under […]
It Takes a Village | Seropositive Rheumatoid Arthritis
In nursing school, we are taught to use care plans to help manage our patients’ health problems. First, we assess the patient; next, we develop […]
When Lab Tests Provide Additional Information | Sjögren’s
Is there a more confounding lab test in rheumatology than the antinuclear antibody (ANA) test? It can lead us straight to a diagnosis or set […]
How I Learned About the Immune System | Immunology
Picture this: A 43-year-old nurse practitioner (that’s me) on the floor of her 8-year- old daughter’s Disaster Area bedroom, drawing different colored blobs with pointy […]
What Quality Improvement Means To Me
In the clinical setting, the topic of quality improvement (QI) is often met with groans. One more thing to keep track of. One more thing […]