Happy Nurse Practitioner Week!!!

National Nurse Practitioner Week 2017 will be held November 12 - 18

National Nurse Practitioner Week is held annually to celebrate these exceptional health care providers and to remind lawmakers of the importance of removing outdated barriers to practice so that NPs will be allowed to practice to the full extent of their experience and education.

There are more than 234,000 nurse practitioners (NPs) licensed in the U.S. 

• An estimated 23,000 new NPs completed their academic programs in 2015-2016 
• 7% of NPs have graduate degrees 
• 2% of NPs are certified in an area of primary care 

Area of Certification	Percent	Top Practice Setting	Top Clinical Foci
Acute Care	6.6	Hospital Inpatient Clinic (28.8%)	Surgical (17.1%)
Adult+	16.2	Hospital Outpatient Clinic (16.6%)	Primary Care (37.9%)
Adult-Gerontology Acute Care	2.1	Hospital Inpatient Clinic (38.4%)	Surgical (14.8%)
Adult-Gerontology Primary Care+	4.5	Hospital Outpatient Clinic (21.4%)	Primary Care (48.0%)
Family+	62.4	Private Group Practice (20.9%)	Primary Care (50.0%)
Gerontology+	2.3	Long-Term Care Facility (21.3%)	Primary Care (49.5%)
Pediatric - Primary Care+	4.8	Hospital Outpatient Clinic (22.4%)	Primary Care (59.3%)
Psychiatric/Mental Health - Adult	1.8	Psych/Mental Health Facility (20.0%)	Psychiatric (97.6%)
Psychiatric/Mental Health - Family	2.4	Psych/Mental Health Facility (31.6%)	Psychiatric (100.0%)
Women's Health+	3.5	Private Group Practice (17.4%)	OB/GYN (74.7%)

 

Distribution, Top Practice Setting and Clinical Focus Area by Area of NP Certification 

• Nearly three in four NPs are accepting new Medicare patients and 77.9% are accepting new Medicaid patients 
• 9% of NPs hold hospital privileges; 11.3% have long term care privileges 
• 8% of NPs prescribe medications, and those in full-time practice write an average of 23 prescriptions per day 
• NPs hold prescriptive privileges, including controlled substances in all 50 states and D.C.
• In 2017, the mean, full-time base salary for an NP was $105,670 
• The majority (61.4%) of NPs see 3 or more patients per hour 
• Malpractice rates remain low; only 1.9% have been named as primary defendant in a malpractice case 
• Nurse Practitioners have been in practice an average of 11 years 
• The average age of NPs is 49 years 

 If you are not an an active member of our Central Alabama Nurse Practitioner Association (CANPA), we invite you to join our organization for the low cost of only $35/year. Thank you!