Celebrate Nurse Practitioner week!

As proclaimed by Texas Governor and Republican

As proclaimed by Texas Governor and Republican presidential hopeful, Rick Perry, it’s Nurse Practitioner week!

In celebration of National Nurse Practitioner week, here are some interesting facts regarding the profession:

• There are over 148,000 nurse practitioners (NPs) practicing in U.S.
• An estimated 9500 new NPs completed their academic programs in 2010-2011
• 93% of NPs have graduate degrees
• 97% of NPs maintain national certification
• 18% of NPs practice in rural or frontier settings
• 88% of NPs are prepared in primary care; 68% of NPs practice in at least one primary care site
• 87% of NPs see patients covered by Medicare and 84% by Medicaid
• 43% of NPs hold hospital privileges; 15% have long term care privileges
• 96.5% of NPs prescribe medications, averaging 20 prescriptions/day
• NPs hold prescriptive privilege in all 50 states, with controlled substances in 48
• The early-2011 mean full-time NP base salary was $91,310, with average full-time total income $98,760
• 60% of NPs see three to four patients per hour; 7% see over five patients per hour
• Malpractice rates remain low; only 2% have been named as primary defendant in a malpractice case
• Average NP is female (96%) and 48 years old; she has been in practice for 12.8 years as a family NP (49%)

Sources:
AANP National NP Database, 2010-2011
2011 AANP National NP Compensation Survey
2010 AANP National Practice Site Survey
2009 AANP Membership Survey
2009-2010 AANP NP Sample Survey
Additional information is available at the AANP website www.aanp.org.

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