Clueless NP can't read her patient's EKG, so she posts it on Facebook

Hey, we know a few "cardio people". We even have a special term for these highly educated and extensively trained specialist physicians: cardiologists. Unfortunately for family nurse practitioner Angela Fasanella, there probably aren't any cardiologists to be found in Facebook's "Nurse Practitioner Group".

Not that a board-certified cardiologist who has completed 4 years of medical school, 3-4 years of internal medicine residency, and another 3+ years of cardiology fellowship is needed here - at least with regard to the heart "skipping beats" and the EKG/rhythm strip above, it's pretty fucking obvious what is likely going on. The symptomatic dizziness might require some further workup (e.g. secondary causes such as hypokalemia/hypomagnesemia), but even that would be considered bread-and-butter for most physicians in the outpatient or inpatient setting. Even when the abnormalities in this EKG/rhythm strip are staring this NP in her fucking face, the best solution she can come up with is to post her case on Facebook and cry "Help please!!" By contrast, we're willing to bet a Thanksgiving turkey that all of the cardiologists and medicine physicians we work with on a regular basis could suggest the most likely diagnosis blindfolded and verbalize a plan for further evaluation and management without even looking at the EKG.

Granted, with midlevel nurse practitioners their education and training (or lack thereof) can be succinctly summarized as "garbage in, garbage out". Perhaps the only thing worse than posting real-world patient scenarios on social media for clinical consultation/advice is to receive wrong or incomplete information in return:

One must wonder how a midlevel nurse practitioner who has been licensed as such for over 7 years seems to have no idea how to read a basic EKG/rhythm strip, something that most PGY-1 resident physicians could do. Frighteningly, this NP has been granted autonomous practice and prescriptive authority in Virginia, a state that allows midlevel NPs to apply for autonomous practice if they have more than 5 years / 9,000 hours of "experience". While the patient above was skipping beats, NP Fasanella apparently skipped over Cardiology and EKG Interpretation 101. Sad! Once again, time and "experience" (whatever that entails) is no substitute for formal medical education and rigorous medical training in the form of medical school, residency, and fellowship.