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NANNP Corner

Accomplishments and Looking Forward

Bobby Bellflower, DNSc NNP-BC FAANP
NANNP Council Chair

The past year, 2021, has been long and often challenging, but we have learned a lot. NANNP has accomplished much on your behalf, but there is more to do. Some of the accomplishments include:

  • Publication of Thermoregulation in the Care of Infants Guideline for Practice
  • Analysis of the NNP workforce data based on the 2020 Workforce Survey (Thank you for participating.)
  • Publication of an Executive Summary of the workforce survey in our journal, Advances in Neonatal Care. The reference for the article: Snapp, B., Moore, T., Wallman, C., and Staebler, S. (2021). 2020 Neonatal Nurse Practitioner Workforce Survey. Advances in Neonatal Care, 21(30), 242-246. doi:10.1097/ANC.0000000000000903.
  • Revision, reaffirmation, or retirement of APRN professional documents. 
    • The Impact of Advanced Practice Nurses' Shift Length and Fatigue on Patient Safety (2015) - under review for update
    • The Future of Neonatal Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Practice (2014) - under review for update 

Other accomplishments of NANNP include developing and presenting the first Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) Podcast as part of a quarterly series on NANNcast, NANN’s popular podcast platform. Taryn Edwards is our liaison to Jill Beck, the producer, on helping to determine what the podcast will focus on, and she will help find qualified experts to speak on the topic. The first APRN Series podcast focused on the NNP shortage and discussed strategies to encourage neonatal nurses to return to school for their NNP specialty. Other topics will include different professional development topics and pathophysiology topics.

The NANNP Council helped develop the topics and secure speakers for the APRN Summit at the Annual Educational Conference in September 2021. The speakers spoke about healthcare inequities in underrepresented minorities, among other important topics. Although the conference was virtual, the speakers did outstanding presentations. The NANNP council held an interest session about developing a Fellow program for APRNs in NANNP. A Neonatal fellow program may be a competitive program to honor Neonatal APRNs recognized as experts in specific areas such as clinical care of babies and their families, education, policy expertise, or service to their profession. There will be more to come on this idea.

Two NANNP council members and the NNP faculty special interest group (SIG) leader held a virtual session on the national foundational documents for NNP education, the new Essentials: Core competencies for professional nursing education, and The National Task Force for Standards of Nurse Practitioner Education (NTF). NANNP has been a part of the NTF for the past two years. These documents will change the way we teach nurse practitioners in the future, and it is crucial that NANNP have a voice in the final outcomes.

It has been a busy year for NANNP, but we have more to accomplish. There are other professional documents on our website that we will revise, retire, or reaffirm over the next few months. An author team is working on the second paper from the workforce survey, and we hope to have it published this year. NANNP has a team that will develop a new APRN video that will feature our diverse workforce and all APRNs in the NICU. The Council is developing four APRN podcasts for 2022, and we would love to have your input. You can email your thoughts to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The NANNP liaison to the conference committee, Tosha Harris, is developing ideas for the 2022 APRN Summit at the annual conference.

Finally, the NANNP Council represents myriad APRNs in NANN. We want to hear from you. If you have not joined the NANNP MyNANN community, consider joining today. Post any questions, suggestions, or comments on that site. We have many creative and helpful colleagues that have beautiful ideas. If you want to submit ideas, comments, or suggestions directly to me, please email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Have a happy, healthy, less stressful 2022!

Reference
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2021). The Essentials: Core competencies for professional nursing education.
https://www.aacnnursing.org/Portals/42/AcademicNursing/pdf/Essentials-2021.pdf

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