In the news this week have been profiles on two NPs making a difference: Julie Marfell of Kentucky and Kathy Trotter of North Carolina. Marfell was awarded the Kentucky Nurse Practitioner of the Year award from AANP. She was highlighted in the Lexington Herald-Leader: ''2008 Kentucky nurse practitioner honored.'' Marfell is the chairwoman of ...

Last year at this time, I attended the signing of a key law expanding NP privileges in Pennsylvania. Milling about before the ceremony, I was buttonholed by a dental hygienist hoping to spread the word about the valuable work those practitioners do. Gov. Rendell was signing another law that day eliminating the legal requirement that dental ...

Am Arizona bill to block NPs from performing aspiration abortions failed by a vote of 14 to 12 in the Senate this session. The Douglas Daily Dispatch reported on legislative action in Arizona, including this bill, in ''Arizona Legislative Briefs.'' The Tucson Daily Star reported on it here. One NP in particular, an employee of Planned ...

In an attempt to get adequate health care to rural and underserved areas, Ontario is planning to set up 26 nurse-led clinics in the province. One is already in operation in the city of Sudbury. But according to an article in last week's Daily Observer, the Ontario Medical Association is ''concerned perhaps about the level of contact that nurse ...

This footage aired on a Little Rock, Arkansas news channel. It profiles a nurse practitioner, Rebecca McCarrie, who started a private family practice and is providing much-needed care to her community, or, as she calls it, her ''extended family.'' Please click here to view the video. (If it doesn't work the first time, refresh the page. It's ...

First Coast News aired video coverage about a MinuteClinic in Lakewood, Florida. Angela Spears interviewed Cheryl Klug, NP, about school physicals provided at MinuteClinic. Klug told reporters, ''Doctors are not always around at 6 p.m. when you have an ear infection or bladder infection. So what are you going to do?'' Click here to see the ...

This week, Take Care Health Systems announced that they are opening clinics in the Rockford, Illinois area. In addition to this news, there is some increased attention to the retail health industry in the area. An article (''Would you like a prescription with that?'') was published yesterday in Medill Reports Chicago about the clinics ...

Last year, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell signed into law a bill that expands the role of the NP in the state. Nurse practitioners in Pennsylvania still work under a collaborative practice agreement in the state, so it is still difficult to work in underserved areas, but NPs are becoming more respected by the general public. An article ...

A nurse practitioner weighed in on the concept of ''slow medicine'' in a New York Times article published May 5. Joanne Sandberg-Cook, an NP who works at the Kendal at Hanover retirement home in New Hampshire, says that each geriatric patient's circumstances''demand the time to think about all the what-ifs.'' The what-ifs include whether, for ...

The article starts out promising good PR for nurse practitioners: ''Peggy O'Donnell, a Lynbrook nurse practitioner, knows a thing or two about picking a good primary care physician.'' This is O'Donnell's opportunity to explain that an NP often can be your primary care provider — and even better, that there are studies that show that NP care is ...