Laura K. Flynn, APN

What techniques or procedures do you use in your practice?

I solely work in the hospital so that I can see patients on the day they get admitted to the day of discharge. We perform admissions, rounds, cardiac assessments including ECG and telemetry evaluation, post cardiac device implants and wound evaluations, placing orders, and writing notes and discharges. We confer with physicians at least 2-3 times a day to ensure the patient's safety and care are the utmost priority including rounding and/or assessing a patient with a specific doctor each day. We perform in-house antiarrhythmic medication initiations with both Tikosyn and Sotalol. We also perform tilt table tests for patients struggling with multiple concerns including hypotension, carotid artery sensitivity, POTS, and syncope. We can see patients just prior to their procedures and discharge them the following day.

Describe some of your professional highlights.

I chose the Electrophysiology team almost 10 years ago after graduating from Seton Hall University with my Nurse Practitioner degree because the team offered something I could not get anywhere else. They offered an in-hospital patient care job, with aspects of learning including pre and post-procedure care, the ability to evaluate patients for current and up-to-date/cutting-edge procedures and medical therapy, to learn about cardiac devices such as pacemakers and defibrillators, and to continue my learning through research. I have been able to present a poster of my own research at a National conference. I recently accepted a Co-Leadership position with my colleague so that we can continue to care for and grow our practice of nurse practitioners and physician assistants along with our fantastic team of physicians who are like family to me. I have now been working for this company for 20 years! I look forward to presenting at our conference in April about Anti Arrhythmic Drugs.

What would you like patients to know about your approach to care?

I would like to share that with my patients, I put them first. I have a long career at Valley Hospital in the nursing field and have worked my way up from being a patient care assistant all the way up to my current Nurse Practitioner position. I have known that I wanted to be a Nurse since third grade. Patients come first in my job and I work to care for them in the best way possible. I look at the whole patient - what could be causing stress on the outside of the hospital, ensuring that they are comfortable as possible while admitted, and making sure they understand why procedures or medications are necessary for what we are treating. I also find their discharge very important as they need to know details about who and when to follow up with.