I am sure that people think that you don't get to be close with patients when working in a retail setting such as Walgreens. I also suspect people feel they would not tell the nurse practitioner so much about themselves in a 15 or 20 minute visit.

Just today I saw a patient whose father at the age of 51 is dying of brain cancer, and she is home visiting him for the holidays, and unsure of when he will pass away. I had a mother hug me crying because we did not turn her daughter away for lack of insurance, and I gave her meds that were on the $4 list at walmart.

I had a woman tell me of her daughter that just passed from CJD, a neurological condition for which there is no cure while in for her flu shot, or another mother that told me about her 31 year old son on the heart transplant list, or another woman telling me about how hard it is to deal with raising 2 children ages 1year and 6 years after her husband had just been killed in a car accident when he was hit by a drunk driver.

This gives quick care a misnomer. Sometimes it is surely not quick, and often times it is the care that you don't even realize that you provide that the person needs.