Owning your own business comes with many challenges. Including, managing the practice as well as seeing  patients. Although I love seeing patients, I also enjoy spending time managing my own practice. This includes hiring, advertising, determining hours of operations, etc... After practicing for several years now, I have come to really ...

The New York Times reports that trendspotter Faith Popcorn also follows trends. She sees a nurse practitioner: '''I see a nurse practitioner,' rather than a doctor [said Popcorn], 'unless there’s really a problem. I also wait a little longer before I seek help, in case nature cures the ill.'''

My parents retired a few years ago and moved to a ''55 and older'' community on the east coast. They know all their neighbors, and everyone knows everyone else's health status, who sees which health care providers, and every provider's business practices. My dad's quick recovery from knee replacement surgery convinced a neighbor a block over to ...

''A familiar chasm separates what women dig from what dudes imagine women dig.'' That's my favorite line from a New York Times article, published today, about a fetish of mixed martial arts participants. It seems the primarily male fighters actually encourage formation of misshapen ''cauliflower ears'' by not preventing and not treating injuries ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

We can keep pointing out the differences between NPs and physician assistants, but other health care professionals often want to speak about the two groups together. When they do, they encounter a language problem. Instead of referring to the single group as ''NPs and PAs,'' they often opt for phrases many NPs (and PAs) find offensive, such as ...