Get to Know the New 2011 ACNP President,

Janet Selway, DNSc, CRNP-A/PPlease describe your clinical practice and nurse

practitioner (NP) background.

I have been an NP for 22 years and am certified asan adult and a pediatric NP. My clinical backgroundhas mostly been in family practice, with some urgentcare and community health experience and a shorttime in outpatient gastrointestinal surgery.

What interested you in running for ACNP

president?

I believe in the value of NPs. I have met some real-ly great people and had wonderful opportunities andexperiences because of ACNP. I believe in ACNP’smission and values. In the words of our first executivedirector, Nancy Sharp, we still “focus like a laserbeam” on our mission, and we live our organizationalvalues. I know I will be working with a strong andcohesive board, as well as an amazing CEO, CarolynHutcherson. The ACNP staff—Cathryn Alfers, NickRumberger, and Tim Wagner—are really great people.I feel like I have the experience and background to doa good job, as well as the support.

Now that I’ve said all that, the real reason isbecause my esteemed colleague and ACNP PastPresident Julie Stanik-Hutt made me do it.

Do you have other preceding experience in

association or NP leadership?

I am proud to say I am a past president of theNurse Practitioner Association of Maryland,ACNP’s first state affiliate member. I also servedon the board of the Pro-Bono Counseling Projectof Maryland for 3 years.

What are the challenges and opportunities for

ACNP and NPs in the upcoming year?

The challenges ACNP faces are the same ones NPshave been facing since their inception: dysfunctionalregulation of NP practice and reimbursementinequities. Both of these challenges contribute toaccess to care problems. The opportunities for ACNPto accomplish its vision—that NPs will be able to prac-tice to their full capacity—have never been so great.The just released IOM/RWJF Future of NursingInitiative recommendations are full of potential. Welook forward to working with others to plan theirimplementation. Our strong collaborative partnershipswith national organizations, both within nursing andthe NP community and with entities external to nurs-ing, provide rich opportunities to accomplish our mis-sion. Our state affiliate members continue to grow;ACNP recently welcomed Nebraska and Wyoming asour newest state members. Several national nursingorganizations have expressed interest in joining us asnational affiliates/advocates. And we have partneredwith NAPANP and NONPF, two highly regarded organ-izations, to support for the first time a full-time federallobbyist, Mr. Dave Mason.

Do you have any personal goals for ACNP

this year?

I would like to see the board continue to bestrong and cohesive. I want to see ACNP continueto work well with other organizations through theNP Roundtable. I would love to see a legislative winfor NPs.

On October 5, 2010, the Institute of Medicine, incollaboration with the Robert Wood JohnsonFoundation, released the report “The Future ofNursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health.” Thisreport calls for elimination of “regulatory and insti-tutional obstacles,” including limits on nurses’“scope of practice.” In its recommendations, thereport committee said Medicare and Medicaidshould reimburse advanced practice nurses thesame as a physician for providing the same care.“When you do the same job, you ought to be paid

the same,” said Donna Shalala, former Health andHuman Services secretary and chair of the IOM’scommittee on the future of nursing.

The report also calls for nurses to be allowed toadmit patients to the hospital or to a hospice andfor the Federal Trade Commission and theDepartment of Justice to review existing scope ofpractice provisions for “anticompetitive” practices.

Kaiser Health News has written an article on theIOM report that can be found by visitinghttp://bit.ly/at8opf.

IOM Releases Report on the Future of Nursing

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New Congress Offers NewOpportunities for NPs

The ACNP OnlineLearning Center has

New CE Opportunities from the 2010 National

Clinical Conference!

Visithttp://bit.ly/acnponlinece

for more details!

The 112th Congress convening in Washington,DC, this month looks a lot different than the leg-islature that preceded it for the past 2 years. Themid-term election last November resulted in fun-damental changes not only to the make-up of theHouse of Representatives and the Senate but alsosignificantly changed the agenda that the newlyelected Congress will have to deal with over thenext 2 years.

As with the beginning of every new session ofCongress, it will take time for this legislature to getorganized and start to deal with issues and billscoming before it. The reasons for this are part per-sonalities and part politics. Returning incumbentsand first-time members have to get acquainted.Many are just moving into their offices and still haveto fill out their staff in Washington and in theiroffices back home, and new staffers have to adjustto their new jobs and offices. It will be weeksbefore some offices determine who will handle theissues that NPs care about.

Committees in the two chambers are also gettingorganized and filling vacancies resulting from theelection. Most of the issues affecting ACNP mem-bers are in the jurisdiction of five committees: two inthe Senate and three in the House. The SenateFinance Committee deals with Medicare, Medicaid,and tax issues, while the Senate Health, Education,Labor, and Pensions Committee has jurisdiction overmost federal insurance, public health, and educationlaws. In the House, two committees split most ofthe issues under the Senate Finance Committee:

the Ways and Means Committee deals withMedicare and tax issues that fund many health pro-grams, while the Energy and Commerce Committeeshare jurisdiction over Medicare and acts onMedicaid, public health, and insurance issues. TheEducation and Labor Committee shares jurisdictionover many insurance, public health, and educationissues with the Energy and Commerce panel.

Because of their jurisdiction, the membership ofthese five committees is particularly important toNPs. The chairmen of these panels work with theWhite House and the majority leadership in eachchamber to decide what bills their committees willtake up, and a bill can be bottled up in committeefor the whole session if the chairman doesn’t thinkit’s important enough for the committee to vote on.

Now, at the very beginning of a new session ofCongress, is a great time for NPs to contact yourSenators and Representative. As a constituent youropinion on issues is vitally important to them, andas a highly educated healthcare professional, youoffer both professional expertise and local perspec-tive on healthcare issues that are probably confus-ing and overwhelming to legislators and their staff.When you contact your legislator, say you want tobe a resource on healthcare issues and ask if thereis an advisory group that you can join to provideyour opinion. Begin now to build the relationshipswith your legislators that will help influence theirvotes in the future.

Dave Mason, Government Relations Director,Mason Consulting, LLC

In 2008, an estimated 141,286 nurse practi-tioners were employed in nursing, according to areport released by the Health Resources andServices Administration (HRSA). Additionallymore than 93% of NPs employed in nursingreport having at least either national certificationor state board recognition.

The HRSA study contains a chapter devotedspecifically to NPs. For more information anddetails, view or download the report athttp://bit.ly/ad5AnG.

HRSA Study Finds NursingWorkforce is Growing

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www.acnpconference.comDEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: FEBRUARY 7, 2011

The American College of Nurse Practitioners (ACNP) invites abstract submissions for the 2011 ACNP Clinical Conference – Nurse Practitioners: Shaping Policy, Improving Practice. The conference

will be held October 5-9, 2011 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado.

ACNP’s National Clinical Conference has continued to grow strong over the years. In Denver, we are anticipating that more than 1,200 Nurse Practitioners will be in attendance for the premier educational and clinical event. Consistent with ACNP’s mission of providing professional and political advocacy,

the Clinical Conference provides curriculum that will develop and enhance the skills of Nurse Practitioners. The conference abstract submission process features a technology-based interface,

designed for the convenience of the speakers. The simplicity of this online system facilitates easy participation in the conference.

To submit an abstract, please visit the ACNP website at www.acnpconference.com.

Clinical ConferenceDENVER • OCTOBER 5–9Colorado Convention Center