AHEC Profiles
Jean Davison - AHEC Preceptor, Nurse Practitioner
Jean Davison relishes her roles as an AHEC preceptor and family nurse practitioner. Her students and patients enjoy the benefits of her dedication, wide range of experience and holistic approach. Her breadth of knowledge and experience, which includes a number of nursing specialties, a teaching background in health sciences as well as EMT-Paramedic and other certifications, makes her an outstanding resource and teacher.
Road to Precepting
Jean has amassed nearly 1400 hours serving as an AHEC preceptor since 1998, generally working with one student per semester. She currently precepts from Wake AHEC in her dual roles as a family nurse practitioner at Person Family Medical Center in Roxboro and as a part-time clinical instructor at UNC. Previously, she precepted from Greensboro AHEC while employed as a family nurse practitioner at Caswell Family Medical Center in Yanceyville.
A nurse practitioner is an advanced practice role that goes beyond the role of an RN. NPs perform complete physicals, assess patients, diagnose and manage patients. Health prevention and promotion, chronic illness management and acute illness assessment and treatment are also within their range of duties. In addition, they order tests and write prescriptions.
Person Family Medical Center is a rural community health center serving a very vulnerable population suffering from conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, and coronary artery disease. “At Person Family, I try to let the students do as much as possible with the patients themselves – assess, diagnose and treat under my guidance. I am primarily a guide,” Jean said. “At UNC, I read and grade journals, and make sure that the students are a good fit with clinical. Clinical is extremely important. It’s like riding a bike - you have to try a few times.”
As a UNC clinical instructor, Jean precepts family nurse practitioner students across North Carolina. “I’ve been on all sides of the fence and enjoyed them all – from student to preceptor to clinical instructor,” she said.
Her motivation stems from being precepted herself as a student and wanting to give back, to help others. “Students keep you on your toes and keep you from falling into ‘This is the way we’ve always done it.’ They are always on the cutting edge of the newest research guidelines.”
Jean had been an emergency room RN and public health/school nurse for 20 years before becoming a nurse practitioner in 2000. As an RN, Jean was working in some advanced practice roles such as Duke’s LifeFlight, when she reached the point where she wanted to do more. “I live in Person County and I like community health centers. People can be seen whether they have insurance or not – they’re federally funded and operate on a sliding scale.”
Nurse practitioner students come from a background of broad experience, Jean explained. “I’ve always learned as much from them as I’ve taught them.” The drawback is the amount of time precepting takes. “You’re expected to see a certain number of patients per hour, and students slow you down.”
A dedicated professional, Jean also serves on a number of health-related boards and has made a number of medical mission trips to Honduras, Romania, and, most recently, to New Orleans five months after Hurricane Katrina.
Nurse Practitioners Today
Nurse practitioner is a relatively new field which began about 30 years ago in rural areas where there were not enough primary care providers. Today they are often found in rural community health centers because of problems with access to care, Jean stated.
The field is somewhat of an invisible occupation under the umbrella of a doctor, Jean said. “It can be ground-breaking when patients aren’t used to it,” she acknowledged. But that is changing. “NPs have started to specialize in such areas as women’s health, pediatrics and research. In the future, nurse practitioners are going to come in strongly on the playing field, especially with the rising cost of health care.”