We hope you had a great NP Week 2012! What did you do to celebrate? Send your photos, stories and more to kwolfgang@advanceweb.com and be included in our January Comments & Feedback column. On Twitter, we retweeted a few great NP week photos. If you're not our Twitter fan yet, head over to our page to see the great things NPs and PAs ...

Happy NP Week 2012! This year, we are recognizing nurse practitioners across the country with the AANP theme, ''Your Partner in Health.'' We'd love to know what your facility is doing to celebrate. Send your photos and stories of your festivities to kwolfgang@advanceweb.com to be featured in our Comments & Feedback column online and in print. ...

As healthcare providers grapple with the historic June 28 Supreme Court Decision upholding the Affordable Care Act, one thing seems to be clear: it is going to create more jobs. With an estimated 30 million people gaining healthcare insurance coverage as a result of the new law, the healthcare system is already gearing up to accommodate the huge ...

In the past week, we shared the news that the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and the American College of Nurse Practitioners plan to merge. With 28 Facebook ''likes'' and many ''shares,'' it seems NPs support the decision. On our blog post readers are responding with positive comments, too. Cathy said, ''It's about time. This was so ...

According to a press release just published by Linden Alschuler & Kaplan, the PR firm representing AANP, the boards of directors of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and American College of Nurse Practitioners have passed resolutions that would begin a process of combining the two organizations. The consolidation would result in one ...

This week, ADVANCE for NPs & PAs editorial staff members Jen Ford and Kelly Wolfgang attended the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) Conference 2012 in Orlando, Florida. We updated our Facebook and Twitter pages throughout the week with pictures, recaps, details of sessions and more! On Facebook, we shared pictures of many of ...

Day 2 began with a talk by Captain Paul S. Hammer, director of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychologial Health and TBI, which inspired many NPs. Hammer brought tears to many in the crowd as he made his plea to NPs to educate themselves on the very unique cultural characteristics of servicemen and -women when treating ...

The conference has begun here in Orlando with an estimated 4,300 nurse practitioners enjoying the activities and the warm Florida weather. Opening ceremonies kicked off the conference this morning, with a keynote by James O. Prochaska, PhD, developer of the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change.  ''These are exciting times for behavioral ...

On Facebook, we had a lot of great comments from readers across the country. In response to our Career Coach article ''Middle of What?'' addressing concerns of the term ''mid-level provider,'' readers expressed their views. ''We are midlevels? Midway between who or what? Dislike the term! Sounds as though we are only mediocre in what we do, ...

This blog is brought to you by ADVANCE and DNA. Editor's note: This post was written by Lakshi Aldredge, MSN, RN, ANP-BC, an adult nurse practitioner who practices at the Portland VA Medical Center in Portland, Oregon. The Dermatology Nurses' Association (DNA) has joined First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden in the ''Joining ...