Those of us who have been in the field for any length of time know that people who drive for a living have a higher than average chance of a sleep disorder. That's why the Sleep Apnea & Trucking Conference being held May 11-12 in Baltimore is so exciting. The conference, organized by the American Sleep Apnea Association and co-sponsored by the ...

How much time is spent in patient education? How effective is it? Is it worth the time spent? Do we get reimbursed for it? These are all questions that we debate -- when we have time, in between doing all the other things that have to get done each day. We all agree that educating our patients is important and that we should do it. But we all ...

A nice article about nurse practitioners showed up in the New York City edition of yesterday's New York Times. Although titled ''Yes, the P.A. Will See You Now,'' the article looks at both physician assistant and NP roles, and it does a good job covering education, salary and job experience. The reporter does once refer to NPs and PAs as ...

There have been numerous accounts of NP opinions on thecontinuing education and creation of standardized DNP programs. We have allheard of the pros and cons of each camp and must make a decision on whether ornot this is beneficial to our profession. I for one am in favor of this endeavor for many reasons. Imust first remind you that I own and ...

Jan Towers, director of health policy for the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, led a session on the doctorate of nursing practice degree. She noted that far fewer NPs were in attendance to the session at this year's conference. ''That's a good thing,'' she said, because there was much heated discussion, which at times was angry, in ...

A couple of free resources that have recently become available are worth mentioning: First is PNP SOURCE, offered by the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP). It is an online learning system and continuing education library that is free to members, with content specifically developed for the pediatric NPs. All ...

Angie's List has plans to let consumers rate their health care providers. The 12-year-old Indianapolis-based company maintains lists of consumer ratings for all kinds of local businesses and services. According to a company press release, the 600,000 list members have been asking for years to add health care providers, hospitals and insurers to ...