34th Annual Meeting
Louisville,
KY
April
10-13, 2008
Setting the Pace for Excellence in NP Education
34th ANNUAL MEETING WRAP-UP
Even the unprecedented cancellation of hundreds of flights by airlines could not keep away record numbers of nurse practitioner educators from Louisville, Kentucky on April 9-13 for timely updates on important issues for nurse practitioner education, sharing of information, and rejuvenation. Attendees overcame travel challenges and resisted the temptation of the Louisville Days of Thunder celebration to participate in a program filled with provocative and innovative topics.
Sessions on the doctor of nursing practice (DNP) programs continue to garner strong interest from attendees. A preconference session focused on scholarly projects showcased examples of different projects from a variety of programs. Various concurrent sessions featuring individual faculty presentations on DNP topics had standing room only, and poster presentations on similar topics generated a lot of traffic. The Friday plenary session, however, likely stimulated the most discussion about the DNP as it focused on three important topics: (1) clinical hours for the DNP, (2) the point of eligibility for certification, and (3) certification. NONPF offered the session to promote discussion among attendees of these issues within the conference, as well as back in home institutions. Feedback from this session is informing the work of developing white papers on related topics.
Despite the popularity of the DNP sessions, attendees also responded favorably to other sessions that highlighted equally provocative topics. The Saturday panel discussion on the medical home model opened the dialogue between nursing and the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC) about the critical role of NPs as primary care providers in this model. Ann O’Sullivan and Jean Johnson brought the perspectives of the NCSBN APRN Advisory Committee and the APRN Consensus Group to a Sunday plenary session on the future model for APRN regulation. The work of the consensus group is still in draft form but the hope is to conclude the work later this year. The main program kicked off on Thursday with a report by Linda Cronenwett of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill on the APRN competencies and KSA work done within the QSEN (Quality & Safety Education for Nurses) initiative. See www.qsen.org for more information. The many concurrent sessions and poster presentations addressed a wide range of other important topics for NP education, practice, and research. Audio recordings of the program, along with slide presentations, are available for purchase. Visit the NONPF Web site for details.
At this point in the academic year, faculty members are in great need for a brief respite from meetings, grading, students, etc. The annual meeting provides a chance to put at bay for a few days the daily grind and instead network, exchange information and ideas, and have some fun. Our Saturday evening dinner included a Derby Days Hat Contest to highlight the Kentucky Derby tradition of wearing decorative hats. It was great fun to see the creativity among attendees in picking or making their hats, and our Mistress of Ceremonies for the evening, MJ Henderson, did a fabulous job of showing the different hats and engaging the audience in selecting the winner of the contest – Marva Price of Duke University.
In an update on a NONPF project to study NP track titling and track features (including clinical hours), Monica Scheibmeir and the research team of Berlin Sechrist Associates announced that the 2009 meeting will include a priority-setting forum of attendees to answer important questions for NP education. Make plans now to be part of that dialogue, as well as other sessions on current issues, at the 35th Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon, April 16-19, 2009. Dr. Sheila Melander of the University of Tennessee Memphis will serve as chairperson of the conference.
To view scenes from the Annual Meeting, click here
National Organization of Nurse
Practitioner Faculties (NONPF)
1522 K Street, NW, Ste. 702
Washington, DC 20005
tel: (202) 289-8044 ● fax: (202) 289-8046
nonpf@nonpf.org
President: Mary Anne Dumas, PhD, RN, CFNP, FAANP