Provided by Clinician 1

I am one of the lucky people. I get to attend a number of conferences every year. As I was one of the original co-founders of Clinician Reviews and now Clinician 1 this has been my good fortune for many years. I think I missed one PA conference in the last 35 years and may not have missed an AANP conference over the last 17 or 18 years.

I also attend a number of AFPPA (Family Practice PA) conferences which have been attracting many NPs and are excellent conferences as well as scores of NPACE conferences many others. I might hold the world’s record for NP and PA conferences attended.

So what were my 2010 thoughts. As alway, the best thing is seeing my friends. NPs and PAs I have known for years. I hug them all. I feel like this is the ideal place to do that and if I can’t do it at the conferences, I might as well give it all up. I love seeing and being with my friends.

This year’s conferences had many surprises. The first was the relative younger age of the attendees. Gosh, my colleagues are getting younger. Refreshingly, more and more attendees from both conferences are also in much better physical shape. It is really noticeable. Few, if any people smoke. Both conferences also exhibited the hope and positiveness that the last few years has given us, that both professions are not only here to stay but deserve their rightful place in the delivery of care in America. The AANP conference especially was joyous as it was also the 25th Anniversary of that organization. Some NPs even came over and said they agreed with what I had written about PAs changing our name and that they would help if we needed them to. Nice :=)). Many of both professions expressed very positive comments about Clinician 1. Also nice.

There were also some negatives

I think both the AANP and I know the AAPA had less people attend than expected. I am not sure why? Is it that many more people are specializing and find the CE/CME not as relevant if it is out of their specialty? Is it the economy? As we know PAs and NPs can find their choice of jobs, but I have to believe some of our spouses have been effected by the economy. I am not sure? Next year both the AANP and the AAPA conferences are in Las Vegas. If the economy is the culprit will people flock to Vegas? I could argue both points, one is if there are troubles, it’s a great place to put them aside. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas....... But conversely, if money is tight will people go to gamble or will they decide to stay closer to home? We shall see. Also I again was reminded at both conferences, but more the NP one, about the significant level of misunderstanding our professions have regarding each other. I can not tell you how many NP leaders I met who thought that PA “supervision” meant the physician had to be on the premises when PAs practiced or that we had to have prescriptions co-signed. Things like that which just are not the way we practice. Especially with the educators and some leaders who have never really worked closely with PAs. There is still much education to be done on BOTH sides and it is needed.

Another great thing about the conferences is I again get to re-learn just how really good the majority of NPs and PAs are.
We are really wonderful people, doing really good things all over our planet. Both professions are filled with people that care and that leaves an everlasting smile on my face. The is so much more to do, but there is so much we have already done. So many lives we have touched.  Even so many stories. They need to be collected.

I think the best thing about conferences is that they re-energize us all. If we could only bottle that energy and bring it to other places........
In any case, I look forward to next year. The AAPA, the AANP, the AFPPA, the specialty conferences, maybe even a joint PA and NP conference to renew my energy yet again. Until then, Clinician 1 does a pretty good job.

See you soon somewhere I hope.

Dave



                                                   

Dave has been a PA, and later NP, leader for thirty years.  He strongly believes that NPs and PAs must work together to insure a better future for both professions.  Most recently Dave has been busy launching another dream; Clinician 1, the first internet community for PAs and NPs.  In October 2008, Dave was honored by the New Jersey State society of PAs with its “Lifetime Achievement Award”.




 The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.




 

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