Nurses are crucial

From the Fort Myers News Press

Letter to the editor

7:43 PM, Nov. 23, 2011   

Nurses are crucial

The week of November 13-19 marked the celebration of National Nurse Practitioner Week. It provided us with an opportunity to celebrate the significant impact nurse practitioners play in the health care arena.

Nurse practitioners are licensed expert clinicians with advanced training who provide primary, acute and specialty healthcare services. We work as partners with our patients to help them make educated health care decisions and healthy lifestyle choices.

Recently, the Institute of Medicine along with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation issued a report that strongly recommended that advanced practice nurses be allowed to practice to the full scope of their abilities and to eliminate the unnecessary barriers that pose an obstacle to patient care especially in light of the healthcare provider shortage.

We need to remind our lawmakers of the importance of allowing nurse practitioners to practice to the full extent of their education and experience. Nurse Practitioners play a large part of the solution to the health care crisis.

Wishing all Nurse Practitioners locally a happy Nurse Practitioner Week!

Arlene Wright, Jeanne Abdou, Southern Gulf Coast Nurse Practitioner Council, Fort Myers