Nurse Practitioner: A Case Study

According to America Cancer Society is the second most common cancer in both men and women. In 2015, 221,200 new cases were diagnosed and 158,040 deaths occurred due to lung cancer. Each year more patients’ dies of lung cancer than any other types of cancer in the United States including breast, colon and prostate cancer. Survival rate for patients depends on the initial stage of cancer at the time of diagnosis (ACS, 2015). Approximately 90% of all cancer are diagnosed at an ambulatory services by primary care providers. Over the last couple of years, the role of a Nurse Practitioners (NP) has been expanding. NPs are seen not only in a primary care setting, but they can play a major role in specialty and subspecialty roles. Due to the growth in the roles of an NP, NPs are now in a position to provide comprehensive assessment, diagnosis and treatment plan and management (Rugg, 2013). It is imperative that providers strive to make an early diagnosis in order for patients to have optimal outcome. Some of the main risk factors for this disease are smoking, which is the most substantial risk. It causes an estimated eighty to eighty-five percent of all lung

Due to this, it often takes longer to diagnosis. The one thing providers depend on is the patients’ history. listening to a patient's history, it may lead to getting them screened for lung cancer. A standard screening method is computed tomography (CT scan). High-risk patients are advised to receive this annually especially if they have a long smoking history. This test has shown to reduce death caused by lung cancer by twenty percent. Current guidelines recommend smokers have an annual chest x-ray done, but the literature does not provide information the level of benefit. The sputum test is another way of checking for cancer cells, but this does not have explicit evidence to back it