"I rarely have anybody say to me, what is a nurse practitioner anymore. people are pretty educated and they've come to realize we provide excellent care," says Elizabeth Mendeloff.

Family nurse practitioner Elizabeth Mendeloff at UIC Family Health Systems in Rockford is diagnosing her profession in perfect health. Mendeloff is one of many nurse practitioners in our area. Her job duties are similar to those of doctors. The only big thing she lacks is the initials MD after her title.

"I perform complete physicals. I treat and diagnose acute and chronic illnesses, and prescribe medications." Mendeloff says her goal is to teach patients about healthy lifestyles and disease prevention.

There was a time when patients were hesitant to sit up on the exam table if they were seeing a nurse practitioner. Today it's different. Mendeloff says, "Ten years ago when a person would come into the clinic and they were told they're going to see the nurse practitioner, they would be like, what I want to see a real doctor. Now ten years later I think a lot of times people will come in and be like wait a minute I want to see the nurse practitioner."

But, regardless who we see in the exam room, the healthcare professionals work as a team when it comes to monitoring our health.
UIC Medical Health Systems currently has nine registered nurse practitioners, but there are nearly 125,000 thousand nationwide.