It's Nurse Practitioner Week!

Many thanks to all the Nurse Practitioners out there who work hard every day caring for infants, children, teens, and families.   We are trained and licensed to diagnose, manage and treat childhood illness and injury and provide preventive care.   It boggles my mind to know how many APP's (Advanced Practice Providers) are employed in this neck of the woods.  We are big in numbers, but still have to fight to get what we need in order to simply do a good job.  It is common that Physicians have ancillary staff, APP's tend to not have support staff; but are expected to do similar work with less help.  Why do we continue to put up with that? 

Show the world (and Washington State) what we do, how we care for children and families and do a fantastic job at it.....we deserve support staff to be supportive to our practice which in turn will let us be even more efficient!  Yes, it's a soap box; and the disclaimer of "not the opinion of the NAPNAP Chapter" will be stated...however...it is pretty darn true from talking to folks around the region. 

So, let's celebrate how successful our profession has been for 50 years.  As stated at a recent NAPNAP conference: "People don't ask Physicians or Lawyers what they do, why do they keep asking us what we do?"   The invisible-visible force in health care.  Be visible, be good at what you do, continue to learn and grow in our profession and celebrate our ability to care for children of all ages so they can also continue to learn and grow. 

Karen Kilian, ARNP