Message From AFPNP President, May 2007 The Association of Faculties of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (AFPNP) has guided the education and practice of advanced practice pediatric nurse practitioners (PNPs) for 30 years. PNPs have come a long way from their beginning as primary care providers in rural Colorado. Today there are over 10,000 PNPs practicing in community clinics, private practices, school-based settings, specialty in-patient and out-patient clinics, and acute/critical care centers. All PNPs are now educated at the masters level with entry into practice slatted to move to doctoral preparation by 2015. Although we have made great progress in education and practice, many issues concerning licensure, prescriptive authority, reimbursement, and certification must be monitored or gains won state by state can be lost. To this end, AFPNP must work with other advanced practice nurse practitioner organizations to assure our role in the delivery of health care. AFPNP supports quality child health care and works with other child health advocates and professional organizations to try to obtain this goal for all children and assure advanced practice pediatric nurses have a voice and a role in the care of children. If you are a faculty member teaching pediatric nursing in an undergraduate or graduate program and are committed to quality education of pediatric nurses, consider joining AFPNP. Participation in AFPNP will provide you with timely notification of issues affecting pediatric education or practice. It will provide you with a forum for discussion of issues relevant to your role as pediatric educators, scope of practice for pediatric nurse practitioners and acute care pediatric nurse practitioners, and opportunities to discuss educational programs and scholarship. We are a small organization financed almost solely through membership fees. Membership supports representation from AFPNP at national professional and policy meetings so the voice of advanced practice pediatric nurses can be heard and our educational program at the annual NAPNAP conference. We welcome active participation from our members. A membership application can be obtained from the web site. Membership runs from March to March in conjunction with the annual NAPNAP conference. Please contact any of the Board members if you have further questions. Sincerely, Pat Jackson Allen

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