Convenient Care Conference
I had the opportunity to attend the Retail Clinician Education Conference in Orlando, Fla. this week August 3rd-5th. I did not attend the conference last year and was very excited to attend this year.
The presentations at the conference covered a broad range of topics in clinical education including dermatology, asthma, OTC cough and cold treatments, and vaccinations. An introduction to homeopathy and dietary supplements was a very nice addition to what we traditionally have in clinical education. The seminars I thought were most intriguing included the presentation on health policy in which members of the CCA presented great information on the past couple of years and battles and legislation that has impacted the retail clinics.
The CCA or Convenient Care Association was established in 2006 when retail was in it's infancy and there were only 150 clinics. Now with over 1200 clinics the role of the CCA will be even more important. The CCA delineates their focus as 1) establishing quality care standards 2) providing industry education and 3) addressing common policy and practice challenges. The CCA is made up of an executive board and an advisory board, and they have a number of secondary committees.
Many of the members of the CCA were in attendance at the conference and it was a real treat to hear from them and share their passion for the industry. Hearing about all the proactive legislative interventions that the CCA has been involved in around the country was very reaffirming that NPs are making headway, there are people who are behind what NPs stand for and what we are trying to do in healthcare today. Healthcare reform was discussed by Barbara Safriet, JD, LLM, Associated Dean for Academic Affairs and Lecturer in Law (retired), Yale Law School. Her perspective was refreshing and shared by many of us in health care today. What is going on today is not true health care reform, rather insurance reform. There is a lot of work to do.
The good news is NPs are making a difference every day and we are getting the support we need to continue to make policy changes that positively affect the way NPs practice, which in turns impact the way we care for patients, the aspect we are most concerned about.