While watching the Super Bowl a few weeks ago, my joy over the Saints’ final touchdown was dashed by a phone call. The facts were cloudy but heart wrenching: My son’s 12-year-old friend was in the hospital, apparently near death, as a result of two seizures that had resulted in severe brainstem swelling. Luke survived the night, and in the ensuing ...

[Note from the editors: Following is a post by a former Real Life in Retail Health blogger about this summer's American Academy of Nurse Practitioners conference. She has left the retail health industry but still wished to share her thoughts on this conference with our blog readers.] I attended all 5 days of the AANP national conference in ...

I am considering buying a new camera. After a visit to the camera shop and listening to several sales pitches, I have narrowed it down to choosing between two or three different models. To help me make my final decision I intend to do some research online. All I need to do is ''google'' the name of a camera to see what opinions and details are ...

Over the past year or so, nurse practitioner organizations have received less and less financial support from the pharmaceutical industry for various events at national and state conferences. This started as a result of significant shifts in marketing practices that have nothing to do with the NP profession, and now is also a reflection of overall ...

OK, I will admit it. I do not really understand economics and I don't really follow politics, and so I cannot engage in a meaningful conversation about the Economic Stimulus Plan. But here is what I do know and understand -- more and more patients are calling me or coming in to see with worry about how they are going to afford medical care ...

Monday's Bismark (N.D.) Tribune ran a positive article introducing the role of nurse practitioners with a DNP to the public. ''Nurse Who Is Also a Doctor'' featured nurse practitioner Stacey Pfenning, who has a doctor of nursing practice degree. Although the article might lead to some confusion among careful readers about whether a DNP expands an ...

I have only anecdotal evidence, but it seems that there are a lot of new NP practices opening out there. In the past few weeks, I've received four Practice Snapshot surveys from NPs who've been in business just since the end of 2007 — two of whom I convinced to help me launch a private practice blog on this site, so stay tuned. I've also already ...

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 ...

One important finding of the 2007 National Salary and Workplace Survey of Nurse Practitioners is that NP subspecialties have mushroomed, even since the 2005 survey. We asked NPs to choose their primary employment setting from a list of 22 choices, including ''other.'' Over the years, the setting choices have expanded in response to what survey ...

A few weeks ago I posted a blog entry opining that retail health clinics sell NPs short when they emphasize that NPs will treat only minor illnesses. A column by Mary O' Neil Mundinger in Forbes magazine may be the public relations remedy to that perception. Mundinger, who is dean of Columbia University's nursing school and who pioneered the ...