February 18th 2010
  What’s New at NPAGR:
   February 2010

Did you know?
National Organizations are working to promote and protect NP practice in two significant ways:

1.     The APRN Consensus Model is now widely available after gaining support of numerous nursing groups involved in licensure, accreditation, certification and education of advanced practice nurses. The model is described in the consensus document, which was created after 4 years of extensive work by the Joint Dialogue Group (composed of 12 nursing organizations and the National Council of State Boards of Nursing APRN committee). It has been endorsed by 46 nursing organizations from licensure, accreditation, certification and education, including the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, the American College of Nurse Practitioners, ANCC, and others. According to Dr. Joan Stanley, Advanced practice nurses have been crippled in their clinical practice because of restrictive state regulations. This consensus document will give clinicians and educators in every state the authority to move toward more uniformity and standardization. It will take a lot of work to achieve educational and legislative change; instilling in APRNs the passion to do the work required will be another challenge. Are you aware of this challenge before us?
 
2.    NURSING RESPONDS TO AMA PAPER ON NPs
The Nurse Practitioner Roundtable (a collaborative of NONPF, ACNP, AANP, NAPNAP, GAPNA, and NPWH) led the development of a nursing response to the American Medical Association (AMA) on the draft paper on nurse practitioners.  The document is available on the NPA website, or use the link below:

http://thenpa.org/associations/1031/AMA Scope of Practice Document.pdf

The AMA developed the paper as part of its Scope of Practice Data Series and sent it to NONPF and other groups to review for "factual inaccuracies."  Twenty-seven national nursing organizations that represent NPs directly or through some aspect of NP regulation signed on to a broad response to the AMA (not a response of specific issues in the paper).  Here is the link for the nursing response:

http://www.nann.org/pdf/AMA12-09.pdf


Your Local Organization is hard at work!
Take the time to attend these upcoming programs:
Next up for our local NPAGR programming is:

Wednesday, March 31st,   we will offer a presentation on Parkinson’s Disease and Deep Brain Stimulation; the location and speaker are still being confirmed at this time.

An April program on Acute & Chronic Pain Management is also being planned.

Planning is being finalized for the NPA Region I conference to be held on Saturday, May 1st from 8 am- 4:15 pm. The conference will be held at St. John Fisher College, Wegmans School of Nursing.  A variety of speakers will present on both primary care and acute care issues. A presentation on Health Care Reform and a session will feature both an NP and an MD who will discuss the statutory collaborative practice legislation. Join us for a great day of learning while you earn continuing education credit.