Every healthcare team has them. They're the advanced practice providers colleagues trust with challenging patients. They're the ones new clinicians naturally turn to with questions, and the providers patients remember because they always seem fully present during even the busiest days.
Functional and lifestyle medicine have been gaining traction over the past several years—but many clinicians still aren’t entirely sure what these roles look like in practice.
Advanced practice providers have become essential to modern healthcare delivery. Nurse practitioners and physician assistants now practice across primary care, specialty medicine, emergency settings, and underserved communities, often serving as the most consistent point of care for patients.
Most healthcare professionals can recognize physical exhaustion. You know when you're tired. You know when you've worked too many hours, slept too little, or spent an entire shift moving from one crisis to the next. Decision fatigue is different.
Recently, a student following me at our clinic remarked on how quickly I could move through patients during the day. “You see about 60 people daily, and while it doesn’t seem like you are rushing them through, I don’t think I could ever do that. I am just too slow.”
