NP Patient

An NP is my patient. This person’s ability to navigate simple parts of healthcare for themselves is alarmingly poor. They don’t know how asking for work accommodations is done or that they can pay cash for cheap medicines not covered by insurance (the uncovered portion would be about $24 for the month on a medicine we are simply trying out temporarily). They can’t answer a simple question like “how many patients do you see in a day? Give me a range.” They are obviously super stressed out. They cannot finish their charts for the week despite working 3 days a week so stay up until 2am finishing charts instead of doing the charts in clinic or on days off during normal human hours. This person has been an NP in outpatient internal medicine for many years.

One sticky piece is that this NP now needs a cognitive workup due to complaints of “brain fog” since COVID 3 years ago. At what threshold do I consider a report to the nursing board if I am unaware of specific harm to a patient. I’ve gotta tell you if a physician patient were this ridiculously unable to make simple decisions and figure out routine things like how to fill a medicine outside of insurance, I’d be inclined to report to the medical board. But my actual suspicion is that this NP has always been on the edge of competence and is now just blaming COVID.

How does one proceed in a situation like this? I mean, besides carefully.

Edit: thanks, everyone! I posted here expecting a mix of responses, and you’ve helped me to understand better how to proceed. Thank you!