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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHalf of Norwood\u2019s schedule is well-child visits, which includes gaining a sense of not just the child\u2019s physical state but their mental health as well. And teen anxiety, she noted, \u201cis through the roof.\u201d Her role as a nurse practitioner is not to offer formal counseling to a young person with, say, anxiety or depression but to identify what\u2019s going on and coordinate care with the behavioral health team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a chronic shortage of child psychiatrists, which means she and her team are trying to get better and better at doing medication management of other emotional problems as well. This is an issue with all of primary care \u2014 not just pediatrics \u2014 which is learning to take on patients\u2019 emotional and psychological well-being rather than automatically referring them out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Attention-deficit\/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been a huge area of interest for Norwood \u2014 then and now. She estimates that around 8% of the kids she sees have ADHD, which falls under the domain of mainstream pediatric care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very good at assessing that and managing it behaviorally and medication-wise.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Autism is another area that Norwood is learning more about \u2014 both diagnosis and management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The role of medicine has changed in many ways over the years, just as society has changed. And certainly in pediatrics, where the old model was that the doctor made unchallenged pronouncements. Pediatrics, as Norwood\u2019s observations indicate, has become more holistic, more conscious of the need for emotional support, and follows \u2014 as best it can \u2014 the model of consensus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there is something extraordinary about caring for patients from infancy to high school graduation. That continuity is one of the more amazing facets of pediatric care. Young people are facing an enormous set of challenges and difficulties these days \u2014 social media, for one, has unanticipated repercussions across the board. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Luckily, there are providers like Anne Norwood doing their best to guide and help young people and parents both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anne Norwood has spent over 30 years as a nurse practitioner in pediatrics. Since she first began her medical career, pediatrics has been her overreaching goal \u2014 a calling. She has worked at Johnson Health Center since 2006, a facility that has since grown by leaps and bounds. \u201cWhen I started in 2006, we had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":22944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"yoast_head":"\n