Communities nationwide join (insert your city) to honor the critical role of NPs, who are championing the health of America’s patients, as part of this year’s annual recognition of National Nurse Practitioner Week (NP Week), beginning November 8, 2020. The theme for this year’s celebration of NP Week is “NPs Moving Forward: Today. Tomorrow. Together.” The 2020 commemoration occurs as NPs combat COVID-19 and the nursing community celebrates the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, coinciding with the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth.
“Patients choose high-quality, NP-provided care in more than a billion visits each year,” said Sophia L. Thomas, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, PPCNP-BC, FNAP, FAANP, president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners® (AANP). “As our nation faces the challenges of COVID-19, providing health care access to aging Americans, rising health care costs and the growing burden of chronic disease, NPs bring strength to the health care workforce and maximize our health care system’s potential.”
NPs assess patients, order and interpret tests, make diagnoses and provide treatment — including prescribing medications. NPs practice in clinics, hospitals, emergency rooms, urgent care centers, nursing homes and private practices across the country. As clinicians who blend clinical expertise with an added emphasis on disease prevention and health management, NPs offer a comprehensive perspective to health care. They are the health care providers of choice for millions of people.
“I believe as nurses we have a foundation of empathy and optimism. Since transitioning into the role of a FNP, I have been able to expand on those principles through working with patients at every stage of life and have developed a deeper understanding for the different phases of growth and development while taking into account the vastly different medical, psycho-social and spiritual issues that accompany each stage of life.
Becoming a FNP has allowed me the autonomy to be able to educate patients about preventive medicine and has given me the opportunity to care for people throughout the lifespan. Caring for the family as a unit has been a unique privilege I have been able to encounter within the primary care setting.”
– Jennifer Sampson, FNP
Learn more about Jennifer Sampson @ https://ejfhc.org/our-providers/bellaire-family-health-center/jennifer-sampson-f-n-p/
