2019 Maine Nurse Practitioner Annual Spring Conference

April 24-26  - Point Lookout, Lincolnville, Maine

Registrations now being accepted!!!

NPs and NP Student form: 2019 Spring Conference Registration

Exhibitor form: Exhibitor Registration Form

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Nurse Practitioners: A Commonsense Solution to the Primary Care Shortage

"States should lift scope-of-practice (SOP) restrictions on nurse practitioners (NPs) and hospital boards, and credentialing bodies should permit NPs to assume expanded roles in primary care settings, according to a new report from the American Enterprise Institute. These steps would significantly ease the worsening primary care shortage, at a time when millions of Americans have no access to primary care. 

"Physicians also need to understand that NPs provide quality healthcare to patients who need it. "NPs and physicians should work together to build relationships that allow for their respective roles and practices to evolve, respecting each other's strengths and ultimately leading to a workforce that is more responsive to communities' health needs," wrote Peter Buerhaus, PhD, FAAN, a healthcare economist and professor of nursing at Montana State University. Buerhaus presented his research and participated in a panel discussion at the American Enterprise Institute on October 15, 2018."

To read the full Medscape article, click here

To see AANP's State Practice Environment map, click here.

 Diabetics Cared for by NPs, PAs Do as Well as Those in Physicians' Care
"It is time to stop calling NPs and PAs 'midlevel' providers."

 According to the New England Journal of Medicine, "Medium-term outcomes in diabetes remain the same under nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) as with physicians, suggests a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine." 

"Researchers compared clinical changes among some 370,000 Veterans Affairs patients with diabetes in almost 600 VA primary care facilities. All were observed for 2 years. Changes in glycated hemoglobin, systolic blood pressure, and low-density lipoprotein among those under the principal care of an NP or PA did not differ when compared to those under physician care.

"For example, when compared with physicians' care, average systolic BP in the second year of observation was 0.08 mm Hg lower with NPs and 0.02 mm Hg higher with PAs — differences with no clinical significance. The same held true with hemoglobin and lipoprotein measures.

"An editorialist, favoring different approaches to primary care, writes that "it is time to stop calling NPs and PAs 'midlevel' providers."

To view the NEJM article with links to the study, click here.

And for another article on the study from "Medscape," click here.

 Senator King Speaks on Senate Floor in Support of Expanding Base of Opioid Treatment Professionals:
"Nurse Practitioners are unsung heroes."

"Nurse practitioners deliver life-saving treatment services in the fight against opioid addiction, particularly in rural counties. I spoke on the Senate floor
to encourage my colleagues to amend a recent opioid bill to give nurse practitioners the authority to provide medically-assisted treatment to those suffering from addiction."

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