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 ...

   ''Before putting the tongue depressor in my mouth, she listened to every word that came out of it.'' So reads an expertly executed advertisement in today's Philadelphia Inquirer (page A9). What a great way to educate consumers about nurse practitioner care! The ad, which is for Take Care Health Services clinics in select Walgreens, ...

  With every news article I read about the latest clinic opening in a retail store, I search for the NP perspective — did they quote an NP or someone from an NP organization, I hope? I feel like the perspectives have been pretty balanced lately: Typically the story runs with an MD stating his fears about continuity of care and the ...

  Opening my Providence (Rhode Island) Journal this morning (OK, online), I saw yet another report on physician objections to retail or convenient care clinics. The same article, but with different names, has been showing up about once a week somewhere in the country for the past 3 years. The article always cites physician charges that ...