New Orleans Nurse Practitioner, Dr. Scharmaine Lawson-Baker,  Founder and CEO of Advanced Clinical Consultants, is the ideal Nurse Practitioner to profile during 2010 Women’s History Month. She has a rich and full professional lifestyle that is evolving and growing every day. Her medical House Call practice encompasses aspects of city and rural nursing. It may be said there are qualities of Frontier Nursing in her practice. She is a Nurse Practitioners’, Nurse Practitioner. Dr. Lawson-Baker is a Board Certified, Family Nurse Practitioner who has a Doctorate in Nursing Practice.

During our conversation she stressed the importance of networking and collaborative efforts among business owners and members of the nursing profession. This year she started her House Calls Residency Program.

The Residency Program provides the information and tools needed for NPs to incorporate a house call practice into their existing practice or to establish a free-standing practice. In addition to her residency program she has formed Geriatric Initiatives, Inc.,a non-profit agency which brings awareness and assistance to wise elders and the homebound of New Orleans, Louisiana.

A account of her work,  after the Katrina and Rita hurricanes  in New Orleans, Louisana, is chronicled in the book “To the Rescue: Stories from Healthcare Workers at the Scenes of Disasters”.  The chapter regarding her work is titled ”Holistic Care in the Eye of the Storm, which can be read beginning on page ninety-seven.

Dr. Lawson-Baker said, “It’s important today for all business owners and Nurse Practitioners to live on the edge, look for opportunities for business, professional and personal growth and be open to the possibilities; forget your weaknesses and concentrate on your strengths. When we focus on our strengths, anything is possible.”

Who is your primary care Nurse Practitioner? Are you living on the edge? How are you harmonizing ( balancing) your business and personal lifestyle?