NP is perplexed by patient's question
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If anyone knows the answer, please let Shelly know!
Generally speaking, physicians are expected to be familiar with pregnancy safety guidelines for common medications, and especially so for any medications being taken by a patient they are directly managing or treating. Apparently, even this bare-minimum standard of care is something that midlevel nurse practitioners fail to meet, if this example from Shelly Styfco is any indication. "She is asking if she should stop her meds?" Like, aren't you supposed to be the one answering that? And it's not even clear what medications the patient is on!
In any case, it's definitely not a good look to be repeating your patient's question word-for-word in a public Facebook group. Is this NP aware that valproate falls in FDA Pregnancy Category D for bipolar disorder due to its association with potentially severe congenital neural tube defects? Needless to say, this future mother and her unborn fetus deserve a far higher level of care than what can be provided by an NP who can't even spell the generic name for Lamictal (lamotrigine) correctly!