Meet Andrea Hatton, who has worked as a Nurse Practitioner (NP) at PRHC for the past 11 years. Andrea is one of 38 NPs who play a critical role at the hospital. NPs can assess, diagnose, prescribe medications for, monitor, and educate their patients on managing chronic illness and a host of other issues.
Andrea currently works in the hematology department alongside two physician colleagues who help patients with benign (non-cancerous) and malignant (cancerous) blood disorders.
“My mornings usually begin by performing bone marrow biopsies for patients to determine diagnosis, stage of disease, or response to treatment,” says Andrea. Biopsies and tests can help diagnose anemia, infection, and hemophilia and can also diagnose blood-clotting disorders, and leukemia. Throughout the day, Andrea works with patients through their journey from diagnosis to treatment, and ongoing follow-up.
Throughout her career, Andrea has worked in many different areas at PRHC, including in the Geriatric Assessment Intervention Network (GAIN) and in the hospitalist program. “I chose to work at PRHC when I became an NP many years ago because they had interesting and unique opportunities for NPs that were not available in many of the surrounding facilities. It has been an amazing journey to work with so many incredibly bright, talented, passionate and compassionate individuals,” she adds.
When asked what PRHC’s new purpose statement, “One team, here when you need us most.” means to her, Andrea says:
“The purpose statement is a goal we all strive to achieve in healthcare – working together, as a team, across all departments and disciplines to provide the best possible care as seamlessly as possible to our patients and their families. For many of the patients in my practice, a new diagnosis of cancer is often overwhelming and very scary. Our role as their care team is to recognize how challenging it is to be confronted with a threat to your health and the uncertainty of the road ahead, and to make that road less treacherous by providing consistent support, clear communication and compassion at every turn.”
