Michelle A. Beauchesne, DNSc, RN, CPNP President Email: mbeauche@lynx.neu.edu The Association of Faculties of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (AFPNP, Inc.) has enjoyed another productive year. We have engaged in many activities and have achieved many accomplishments. Our membership has remained relatively stable and our members have been much more involved in the undertakings of our organization. The AFPNP/AP, Inc. voted to change our name officially to AFPNP, Inc., which we had been informally called for many years. This name change better represents our current membership and will hopefully facilitate more accurate communication and documentation of our efforts. Under the leadership of Margaret Brady, we updated and passed bylaw changes, which was a major achievement. Again, we hope the bylaw changes will improve the infrastructure of our association and facilitate implementation of our goals. Martha Swartz, has developed a comprehensive membership directory and list serve that has made communication easier within the group. Chris Duderstadt designed our new logo and with the assistance of a consultant, Alan Avery, we now have a WEB SITE. This site, www.afpnp.org, has significantly increased our visibility and contributed to the dissemination of our work. The web site links to the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP), the National Certification Board of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners and Nurses (NCBPNP/N), and the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculty (NONPF). In addition, the AFPNP, Inc. has increased its research efforts. We are implementing two studies under the direction of Patricia Ludder Jackson, chair of the Academic Program committee. The first project is in stage 2 and has been looking at the practice roles of graduates of PNP programs and the educational preparation for those roles. Part One of that project is scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatric Health Care. The second survey which is being conducted in collaboration with NONPF investigates the pediatric content in Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) programs. We anticipate the results of these studies will impact our future educational curricula. We have continued the small grants program this year under Bernadette Melnyk, Research Chair, and will announce the recipient at the Awards Breakfast at the NAPNAP Conference in Phoenix. It is our intent to collaborate with the NAPNAP Foundation more closely in the coming year in our research endeavors. The AFPNP, Inc. has been represented on many national projects and coalitions this past year. Elizabeth Hawkins Walsh has been our representative to the Consortium for Quality NP Education for two years and co-authored the White Paper on this topic, which was widely distributed to all Deans of Nursing Programs. We continue to be involved in the Alliance for Nursing Accreditation which involves participation from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), the major certification and accreditation boards for nursing, and most major advanced nursing practice organizations. An important emphasis of this initiative has been to ensure that all groups utilize and meet standards of practice. Susan van Cleve and Beth Richardson continued as our representatives to the NCBPNP/N and have facilitated interactive communication between the two organizations. Beth Richardson proposed a faculty consultation service, which will be discussed further at our annual meeting. Karen Duderstadt chaired the legislative committee and spent considerable time establishing a relationship with the legislative branches of NAPNAP to facilitate common goals in practice and education of PNPs. We have been recently asked to send representation to an initiative of pediatric nurse experts to be convened by Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) and Johnson and Johnson Pediatric Institute. The focus of this think tank is to identify the critical issues in maternal-infant health care and to define nursing roles and needs in addressing these issues. Another very important project has been the national effort, Nurse Practitioner Competencies Project, funded by the U.S. Public Health Service Bureau of Health Professions, Division of Nursing under the leadership of AACN and NONPF. Pam Hellings represented us in the Phase I of this project which focused on the development of entry level competencies for adult, family, geriatric, pediatric and women's health primary care nurse practitioners. We just recently nominated five of our members to participate in Phase II, the validation stage. This has been a very successful example of collaboration between the specialty groups. Detailed reports on all of these projects may be found on our web page. The AFPNP, Inc. has continued collaboration with NONPF through the Memorandum of Understanding (MUO) which was signed last spring. There has been considerable sharing of resources and information, which has contributed toward the success of these intradisciplinary projects. We continue to work closely with NAPNAP with a regular column in the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner newsletter and communication on many related educational and practice issues. The AFPNP, Inc. is sponsoring a formal education session at this year's NAPNAP conference, Using an Innovative, Problem-basd Learning Method to Teach Nutrition, which has been made possible through a grant to Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy by the Gustavus and Louise Pfeiffer Foundation. With such national issues as the current nursing shortage, the "aging" of our clinicians and educators, and the decrease in nursing program enrollments, the AFPNP, Inc. has many challenges to meet in the coming year. Through the support and cooperation of our members and partners, we hope to continue to ensure quality PNP education and practice by meeting these challenges and overcoming the many barriers we face.

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