When it comes to caring for your health, it’s important that you aren’t only seeing your nurse practitioner when you’re sick. There are multiple preventative services that your nurse practitioner offers to help you avoid severe sickness or complications that may affect your ability to perform in your daily life. By getting preventative care, you’ll be able to keep yourself healthy and start treatments before issues become more severe and difficult to manage and treat.
Types of Preventative Services
There are preventative services for many aspects of life and health and it’s important to visit your nurse practitioner regularly for these services. A common service is a complete physical exam. Your nurse practitioner will be able to check every aspect of your body and can address any concerns you may have. They’ll be able to ensure that your body is functioning properly and that if you’re active in sports, you can avoid injury.
You should also be getting regular hearing screenings and vision tests. If your hearing is beginning to weaken, your nurse practitioner will be able to find a hearing loss solution that could help you. This will help you start functioning better on a daily basis. Vision tests can help determine if you need glasses and can ensure that your current prescription is correct and working as it should.
Your nurse practitioner can also check your bone density. This will determine if you’re at risk for osteoporosis or if you’re dealing with it. Osteoporosis is when the body doesn’t develop new bone as quickly as it begins to get rid of old bone and can lead to bone loss.
If you are at risk for diabetes or dealing with diabetes, your nurse practitioner will be able to create a plan to make sure that your diabetes is managed and isn’t causing any further problems. There are certain special needs associated with diabetic care and you may need assistance with tasks like clipping your toenails.
Preventative Services for Women
Women have specific needs that need to be met and certain illnesses that only occur in women or are most prevalent in women. There are different forms of gynecological testing that you may need to make sure that you’re not leaving certain issues untreated and ignored. This could be a pregnancy test, mammogram, pelvic exam, or hormonal imbalance testing. If you’re getting a mammogram and pelvic exam on a regular basis, you’ll be able to hopefully spot issues before they become severe and more difficult to treat.
It's also important to get regular Pap smears. This can help detect signs of cervical cancer at early stages. Women should start getting these tests around the age of 21 and you should need a Pap smear every couple of years if your results come back normal.
You may also need to consider preventative skin cancer exams. This is important if you’re at risk for skin cancer and is the best way to catch signs of skin cancer early. This way, the growth can be removed and hopefully cleared immediately from your body.
Contact Your Nurse Practitioner Today
Preventative care is one of the best ways to make sure that you’re as healthy as possible and avoid future sicknesses that could be managed. Contact us today in Brown Deer, WI, at (414) 874-5000.