A report published this week in a public health journal predicts that by 2025, twice as many nurse practitioners will be in practice in the United States. This brings our numbers from 128,000 in 2008 up to a staggering 244,000 over the course of the next 12 years. Yes, you read that correctly, that is almost a quarter of a million NPs. I will ...

On Monday, October 17, 2011, I started my NP job at the Martin-Tyrrell-Washington District Health Department. Over the 5 days of my first week on the job, I rotated to all three HDs in the district and attended the October 17th grand opening of Martin County HD’s grant-funded satellite clinic in Oak City, North Carolina. I will be the sole primary ...

Former ADVANCE senior associate editor Terri Schaefer, who is now communications manager for the Adult Congenital Heart Association, let me know recently that Susan M. Fernandes, MHP, PA-C, a physician assistant in the cardiology department at Children’s Hospital in Boston, was the lead author of a study published recently in the journal ...

At the start of 2011, we published an article describing the job outlook for NPs and PAs this year. Based on our research and interviews with workforce experts, we crafted a headline for that article using the term ''changing landscape,'' and our cover image depicted an NP or PA partially protected by an umbrella. The expectation was that 2011 ...

Q: What is your view of certification exams for DNP graduates? A: Regarding certification of APRNs, AACN supports national certification for all APRNs but currently does not recognize a certification exam that distinguishes between the master’s-level competencies and advanced DNP competencies. Currently, there is no national certification ...

Congress is in recess this month, and the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP) says it's the perfect time for you to inform your federal legislators about issues that matter to NPs and PAs. This week, NAPNAP posted a toolkit to assist NPs in doing this. Meanwhile, the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) has ...

Health system analysts and assorted other parties have been forecasting a primary care physician shortage for quite some time. An article published recently in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons predicts two additional shortfalls that could affect patient access to care: nurse practitioners and physician ...

ADVANCE attended the American College of Nurse Practitioners ''Policy in Action'' 2011 National Nurse Practitioner Summit and Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. this weekend. Close to 100 nurse practitioner leaders from across the country attended, and discussion focused on how nurse practitioners can capitalize on healthcare reform and ...

Remember last year's release of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report on the future of nursing? Well, the movement for more NP autonomy across the nation is really gaining steam as a result. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is now selecting states to unleash ''regional action coalitions,'' known as RACs, to work on achieving universal ...

For the first time, health advocates have designated a specific month for national attention to pediatric obesity. September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, and as we near its end I'd like to share what a few nurse practitioner students have done to call attention to it. Last weekend, three NP students from Samuel Merritt ...