Nurse Practitioner Care at
Princeton Family Care Associates, LLC
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The clinical care provided by nurse practitioners at PFCA differs significantly from that provided by nurse practitioners in most other medical practices.

Whereas nurse practitioners at other practices “collaborate” with psychiatric medical doctors, this collaboration occurs electively at the request of the nurse practitioner. The nurse practitioner exercises this function, if and only if, he/she feels that there is a need for a higher level of expertise from the “collaborating” physician. Thus, in routine, non-emergent care, the nurse practitioner will make most often the clinical decision they feel is best indicated without the direct oversight of a physician. In this type of clinical setting, the “collaborator” label functions mostly for administrative and licensing purpose and often they referred to as “Ghost” physicians since medical oversight is minimal.
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​​In his role as medical director and proprietor of Princeton Family Care Associates, Dr. Fernandez is not only the collaborating physician for the nurse practitioner but also their supervising clinician.

As such, Dr. Fernandez reviews each nurse practitioner’s visit within 24 to 72 hours after the visit. He will then make active recommendations on medical interventions as clinically indicated in the particular patient’s case. His clinical recommend-ations are then reviewed and enacted by the nurse practitioner in subsequent visits or earlier.

Where he feels the clinical intervention should not wait until the next visit, the nurse practitioner, the office registered nurse or Dr. Fernandez will contact the patient, and the change will be instituted prior to the next visit.

Additionally, there are scheduled supervisory meetings with Dr. Fernandez, the nurse practitioner and psychiatric nurse to further discuss problem issues with patients.

Once you are stable on a medication regimen, Dr. Fernandez requires at least one visit with him within 12 to 18 months so that he can fully review your care in your presence and further fine-tune interventions to your particular clinical needs.

​This type of closely supervised clinical care is unique to this practice and accounts for the consistently good psychiatric management the practice is known for. Feel free to speak to your clinician if you have any further questions and always feel free to ask the clinician (or the front desk) to schedule your next visit with Dr. Fernandez, should you want his specific opinion on a clinical matter.