NP Pulse: The Voice of the Nurse Practitioner (AANP)

Kicking off April’s celebration of National Minority Health Month, acute care nurse practitioner and University of South Carolina College of Nursing Assistant Professor Dr. Dwayne Alleyne joins NP Pulse to share his experience surrounding health equity, minority health issues and inherent biases. Listen to this important conversation  for a fresh perspective on ways NPs can help effect the change needed to build a more inclusive and trusted health care system. Representation within the health care workforce saves lives!

Get involved today! Members of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners® (AANP) can partner with other NPs by joining the AANP Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Community.

AANP also offers a variety of resources, including articles on the AANP News Feed and continuing education activities in the AANP CE Center, which can help you more effectively address social determinants of health and improve health equity in your community.

Be sure to register today for the 2023 AANP National Conference in New Orleans on June 20-25, where former NASA Astronaut Joan Higginbotham will inspire attendees to break through barriers and take their practices to new heights. Members get more, including a savings of at least $200 off nonmember registration rates for the in-person conference!

In this episode, adult nurse practitioner (NP) Heather O’Dell discusses the importance of liver health, the crucial role this organ plays within the human body and the diseases that may lead to needing a liver transplant. She is involved in research related to hepatitis C infected and exposed donor organs, organ utilization and organ allocation. With years of experience working in transplant hepatology, hepatobiliary surgery and clinical practice operations for liver and kidney transplant, O’Dell shares insights about her unique role and provides important information to support NPs with patients who are at risk for, or who have, liver disease.

The American Association of Nurse Practitioners® (AANP) offers tools and resources for NPs of all specialties, including those in primary care and those who specialize in caring for patients with liver disease. Access free patient education tools on diseases that affect the liver, visit the AANP CE Center to access quality continuing education activities and consider attending sessions at the 2023 AANP National Conference in New Orleans on June 20-25. Members get more, including a savings of at least $200 off nonmember registration rates for the in-person conference!

Additional Resources:

• American Liver Foundation.

In the U.S., the incidence of major depressive disorder (MDD) has increased significantly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurse practitioners (NPs) are crucial in the identification and treatment of people with MDD and can make a major impact on their lives. Listen in as psych-mental health NPs Drs. Lisa Anderson and Brayden Kameg discuss the symptoms, screening tools, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up care of the patient with MDD.

Resources

Major Depressive Disorder: Evidence-Based Strategies to Improve Patient Outcomes https://aanp.inreachce.com/Details/Information/3f326558-d7d8-432a-bef5-c902b056d7b9?ref=featured

Major Depressive Disorder Patient Education Tool https://storage.aanp.org/www/documents/practice/therapeutic-areas/Major-Depressive-Disorder-Tool.pdf

Supported by an educational grant from Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc.

Be inspired by Dr. Pandora Hardtman, Jhpiego’s chief nursing and midwifery officer, who has worked to advance health equity around the world. Hardtman encourages nurse practitioners to lead locally and consider ways they can make a global impact. Listening can be the best form of advocacy, according to Hardtman, who urges NPs to stay open and engaged. Hear about her life experiences and be empowered along your own nursing journey. 

If you would like to further develop your leadership skills, AANP offers leadership courses for members, including the AANP Introductory Certificate on Leadership Course, which is a prerequisite for the AANP Executive Leadership Program. A separate AANP Educational Leadership Certificate course is also offered in the AANP CE Center. Register for the 2023 AANP National Conference in June, where you can earn continuing education credit in person or online, meet nurse practitioners from all over the world and hear from leading health experts. As a reminder, nominations for AANP’s National Leadership Awards are being accepted through March 10. Submit your nomination for the Sharp Cutting Edge Award or Towers Pinnacle Award today!

Additional resources if you're interested in international nursing:

https://aanp.org/international

https://www.jhpiego.org/

https://careers.state.gov/career-paths/worldwide-foreign-service/specialist/fss-career-tracks/

https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/employment/default.htm

Hear from Victoria Pemberton, RNC, MS, CCRC, project officer for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), as she discusses the importance of heart health literacy and highlights ways nurse practitioners can effectively engage with patients to reduce heart disease risk. February is American Heart Month — the ideal time to remind your patients about the importance of making heart-healthy lifestyle changes. New resources from the NHLBI’s The Heart Truth® program can help you empower patients to achieve their cardiovascular health goals.

The American Association of Nurse Practitioners® (AANP) offers continuing education (CE), tools and resources to support nurse practitioners (NPs) working to reduce the risk of heart disease. Members may opt to join the AANP Cardiology Community, complete AANP CE Center activities, attend sessions at the 2023 AANP National Conference in New Orleans June 20-25, download clinical practice briefs or access a variety of cardiology-related resources.

Additional Resources

• American Heart Month Outreach Toolkit.

One in three people will develop shingles (herpes zoster) during their lifetime, and the risk for shingles rises sharply at age 50. The single greatest way to prevent shingles is through shingles vaccination, and nurse practitioners (NPs) are well-positioned to improve vaccination rates. In this podcast episode, NP immunization specialists Drs. Audrey Stevenson and Ruth Carrico are joined by special guest Dr. Elisabeth Cohen, a physician, as they discuss the burden of shingles, the importance of vaccination and how NPs can make an impact in this area.

Resources:

• Shingles Vaccination: It’s Time to Tame the Beast Lurking Within.

This podcast was made possible by an educational grant from GlaxoSmithKline.

Nurse practitioners (NPs) have an important role to play in informing their patients about the availability and benefits of clinical trial participation. The outcomes of clinical trials have led to increased knowledge, improved health status and new treatments. In this podcast episode, Drs. Leslie Davis and Paula Tucker discuss details of the research process, provide helpful examples and share resources so you can leverage your role as a clinical trial participation champion for your patients.  

Podcast Resources:

• National Institutes of Health (NIH).

• Inclusion Outreach Toolkit: How to Engage, Recruit and Retain Women in Clinical Research — https://orwh.od.nih.gov/toolkit/recruitment/history.

• The Belmont Report — https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/regulations-and-policy/belmont-report/index.html.

• American Headache Society (AHS).

• First Contact: https://americanheadachesociety.org/primarycare.

In this episode, you'll learn how you can access several innovative new benefits recently launched by the American Association of Nurse Practitioners® (AANP). Hear from Vice President (VP) of Accreditation, Conferences and Education Theresa M Campo DNP, APRN, FAANP, FAAN; VP of Practice and Professional Partnerships Diane L. Padden, PhD, CRNP, FAANP; and VP of Membership Liz Messner, CAE, IOM, as they share their appreciation for AANP members and provide insights about valuable new members-only tools and resources like the free Course of the Month program, timely Clinical Practice Briefs and Point of Care Tools, the Collaborative Learning Network and a revolutionary data sharing option that can streamline your certification or recertification process with the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Board.

Learn more about these new benefits and more at https://aanp.org/new-benefits. To obtain the latest health policy updates and advocate with your colleagues on Capitol Hill, be sure to register for the 2023 AANP Health Policy Conference, which is scheduled to be held on Jan. 29-31 in Washington, D.C. https://aanp.org/hpc23. 

More than half of all adults in the U.S. experience anxiety and depression. In this podcast episode, Dr. Kristin Arden discusses the innovative treatment programs and technological advances that help increase access to high-quality health care for these patients. 

Additional Resources:

• AANP CE Center — View current continuing education (CE) activities on mental health. AANP members get more, including free or significantly reduced rates on CE activities: bit.ly/3Ot5hhv.