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Enjoy our participant highlight on
Brandi Wagner, PMHNP-BC

September 2024

The Community Practitioner Program strives to increase access to quality healthcare for the underserved of North Carolina. The program's participants are committed to this mission.

Where We Stand

Hot Topics

Election Day is Almost Here!

The voice of medicine is crucial in North Carolina and the best way to be heard is to vote! Here are a few key dates to remember: 

• October 11th: Deadline to register to vote. 
• October 17th: Early voting starts.
• October 29th: Deadline to submit an absentee ballot request form.
• November 5th: Election Day and absentee ballot return deadline. 

1. You can register online/in person at the DMV.
2. Mail in an application.

And, here is a look at the NCMS Member Candidates that are on the ballot!

2024 CPP Annual Meeting - Register by October 4th!

CPP participants, please visit https://cvent.me/g220y9 and register by Friday, October 4th for this mandatory meeting. 

To view the agenda, click here.

The meeting is 10 am – 3 pm, Friday, November 1st at the Grandover Resort & Spa (located at 1000 Club Rd, Greensboro, NC 27407). A group picture to commemorate CPP’s 35th Anniversary will be taken at the start of the program. Although the meeting is in conjunction with the NC Medical Society’s LEAD Health Conference, it is a separate event and is one day only. 

Preceptor Hubs

The NC Medical Society Foundation is establishing preceptor hubs across the state! A preceptor hub is a collaborative of medical practices in a similar geographic area that provides the experiential part of the medical school curriculum by helping students gain clinical knowledge by caring for real patients. The benefits of joining a hub; educational loan repayments, practice consulting, executive education, and innovation grants. If you are precepting or are interested in precepting medical and/ or APP students, we are interested in speaking with you. Contact Franklin Walker for more information.

Your Feedback Needed to Improve the Medicaid Clinician Experience

To help improve health outcomes and enhance the overall care experience for Medicaid clinicians and enrollees, share your experiences, challenges, successes, and more. How to provide your feedback is here.

CPP Practice Job Board

The CPP Job Board

Click here to view current openings.

Contact us, if your practice has an opening you would like to post.

Educational Opportunities

NCMGMA - NCMSF 's Lunch & Learn Webinars

1. 2024 Legislative Landscape

Tuesday, October 8, 2024 | 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EST | Zoom

Join us for our October Lunch & Learn Webinar in which the NC Medical Society’s Director of Legislative Affairs will be discussing the current political landscape in North Carolina in regard to the profession of medicine.

Register

2. Clinician Wellness & Burnout

Tuesday, December 10, 2024 | 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EST | Zoom

Join us on December 10th for this insightful webinar focused on the critical issue of clinician wellness and burnout. This session will explore the unique stressors faced by healthcare professionals, examine the signs and symptoms of burnout, and offer practical strategies for fostering and maintaining well-being.

Register

CME Series for Opioid Use Prescribers

The North Carolina Medical Board and Wake AHEC, in collaboration with the North Carolina Medical Society Foundation / Project VBOT and the Addiction Medicine Fellowship program at UNC School of Medicine, have developed an eight-hour CME series that meets the new training requirement recently established by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on the treatment and management of patients with opioid or other substance use disorders. Learn more

CPP Participant Highlight

Brandi Wagner, PMHNP-BC
Behavioral Health | Duke Lifepoint | Vance County

1. What is a quote that has had a significant influence on your life, and why?

So many from Dr. Seus, I will pick my 2 favorites:

“Those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.”

This one keeps me grounded and remembering who supports me. I learned the quote as a child and am still applying it. We cannot make everyone happy and trying to can result in an empty heart and bank account. On the other hand, focusing on the relationships which are positively feeding your soul without judgement is freeing.

“To the world you may be one person but to one person you may be the world.”

A version of this was said to me in 1998 during my first nursing job. It has consistently helped me with burnout and maintaining compassion on hard days.

2. Where are you from originally?

Kansas, born in Wichita.

3. How did you decide to become a Nurse Practitioner?

It was a business decision in my household. I had thought of it for many years, but school never topped the priority list. When the kids were younger, we ran the ROI on either my husband or myself going back to school. Of course, nursing won!

4. What do you like about practicing in an underserved area?

In a smaller rural community, the staff is more intimately acquainted with the patients. Staff buy-in seems easier to garner providing a great building block for the work culture.

5. Is your practice using any tools to address social determinates of health for patients?

I am a psychiatric provider in an adult inpatient unit of 20 acutely and chronically mentally ill patients. Our daily assessment includes social determinates as a large portion of our patients are also homeless. I encourage community assistance and referrals as part of our safe discharge planning process with social work.

6. How has Medicaid Transformation/Expansion affected your practice?

Our practice is exactly the same! Severe persistent mental illness often leads to broken relationships with family who assisted with all the difficult, complicated paperwork and processes for insurance and disability. I have social workers that to help check on status and to assist in starting applications. I believe once they are in our system as uncovered, they are flagged for trust care. If they already have care, follow up care can be easier to schedule but we still need more rural outpatient providers.

7. Do you have any hobbies or activities for self-care?

Spending time with friends and family is a priority during my days off. I also get lost in refinishing furniture or renovating my slightly vintage house. Some stop-light deep breathing, walking and yoga get sprinkled in there too.

8. Is there anything that CPP can do to help you and your practice?

We need one more experienced inpatient PMHNP to fill our team, working a 7 on and 7 off with me on the adult unit!

Upcoming Meetings

1. 2024 CPP Annual Meeting - Register by October 4th!

Friday, November 1
10 am - 3 pm
Grandover Resort & Spa | Greensboro, NC
All CPP and CPP 2.0 participants are required to attend.

Register Here

2. 2024 Winter Family Physicians Weekend

Practice Optimization Seminar
Hosted by the North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians (NCAFP)

Friday, December 6
3:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Omni Grove Park Inn | Asheville, NC

This is a one-time requirement for CPP participants within the 1st or 2nd year of their CPP agreement. CME is provided.

Register Here

CPP Initiatives

1. Have You Ever Considered Precepting?

The Community Practitioner Program is exploring avenues that could provide support to preceptors in rural and underserved areas in NC, which are facing major shortages in the healthcare workforce. More than half of current CPP participants serve as preceptors. To learn more about becoming a preceptor Click Here.

2. Join NC CARE 360 Here!

Be a part of the first statewide resource and referral network that unites healthcare and human service organizations through a shared technology - a great tool for delivering person-centered care to your patients. If your practice has not already onboarded, contact us as soon as possible. Click Here to Onboard

3. Stop & Take the Pledge for Diabetes Prevention.

The pledge demonstrates your willingness to support diabetes prevention in NC. The National Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) is a lifestyle change program that has free or low-cost options for patients, regardless of their insurance provider and you can refer using any of these convenient platforms: OCHI (Our Community Health Initiative), NC CARE 360 and the DPP Navigator. Click Here to Pledge

4. Why Join NCMS? - Membership Benefit Highlights

Insurance Solutions for you!
Join NCMS and get exclusive access to the NCMS Employee Benefit Plan, NCMS Insurance Solutions and the NCMS Retirement Plan. For a full list of benefits Click Here.

5. Support the NCMS Foundation

If you would like to support the Foundation that makes programs like CPP possible, click here, and give today!

6. The CPP Pulse Archive

Miss an issue of our CPP Pulse Newsletter? Take a look at past issues here.

Hail and Farewell

We would like to celebrate the participants exiting the Community Practitioner Program this month. We thank you for serving your communities and for providing access to quality health care in the rural & underserved areas of North Carolina!

Melanie Boling, CNM

OBGYN | Carteret OBGYN | Carteret

North Carolina Medical Society Foundation
PO Box 27167 | Raleigh, NC 27611
Phone: 919.833.3836 | Fax: 919.833.2023 | Email: ncmsfoundation@ncmedsoc.org
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