At OAAPN, we are proud to celebrate National Nurse Practitioner Week recognizing these exceptional healthcare providers. This year’s theme is NPs At The Heart of Health Care, highlighting the crucial role NPs play throughout the entire industry.
“For more than half a century, nurse practitioners (NPs) have been providing primary, acute and specialty health care to millions of patients across the lifespan. NPs evaluate patients, order and interpret tests, make diagnoses, write prescriptions and bring a comprehensive perspective to health care in more than 1 billion patient visits each year.
Named the #1 Best Job and Best Health Care Job by U.S. News & World Report, NPs can be found in clinics, hospitals, emergency rooms, urgent care centers, nursing homes and private practices. As clinicians who blend clinical expertise with an added emphasis on health management, NPs bring a comprehensive perspective to health care and continually rise to meet our nation’s health care challenges.
For that reason, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners® (AANP) joins a grateful nation in recognizing the more than 385,000 NPs at the heart of health care. By offering high-quality, cost-effective, patient-centered health care, NPs provide more than 385,000 solutions to the primary care shortage facing America today. We thank you!”
SOURCE: American Association of Nurse Practitioners® (AANP). View the original article here.
Facts About NPs
- There are more than 385,000 NPs licensed in the US.
- More than 36,000 new NPs completed their academic programs in 2020-2021.
- 88.0% of NPs are certified in an area of primary care, and 70.3% of all NPs deliver primary care.
- 83.2% of full-time NPs are seeing Medicare patients and 81.9% are seeing Medicaid patients.
- 45.6% of full-time NPs hold hospital privileges; 10.9% have long-term care privileges.
- 96.2% of NPs prescribe medications, and those in full-time practice write an average of 21 prescriptions per day.
- NPs hold prescriptive privileges, including controlled substances, in all 50 states and D.C.
- In 2021, the median base salary for full-time NPs was $113,000.
- The majority of full-time NPs (56.9%) see 3 or more patients per hour.
- NPs have been in practice an average of 9 years.
- The average age of NPs is 46 years.
- To date, 27 states, the District of Columbia and Two U.S. territories have adopted Full Practice Authority, giving patients full and direct access to NPs.
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1 AANP National Nurse Practitioner Database, 2022.
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2 American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). (2023). 2022-2023 Enrollment and Graduations in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in Nursing. Washington, DC: AACN.
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3 2022 AANP National Nurse Practitioner Workforce Survey — Preliminary Analysis.