Professional News

Wheeler Inducted Into National Organization for Nurse Practitioners

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 29, 2010) − Kathy Wheeler, a licensed nurse practitioner and assistant clinical profesor at the University of Kentucky College of Nursing was recently inducted as a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (FAANP). Nurse Practitioners are licensed independent practitioners who practice in ambulatory, acute and long term care as primary and/or specialty care providers.
 

The FAANP program was established in 2000 to recognize nurse practitioner leaders who have made outstanding contributions to health care through nurse practitioner clinical practice, research, education or policy. Priority initiatives of FAANP are the development of leadership and mentorship programs for nurse practitioners and nurse practitioner students.

Fellows of the AANP are visionaries committed to the global advancement of nursing through the development of imaginative and creative future nurse practitioner leaders and as such, hold an annual think tank to strategize about the future of nurse practitioners and health care outside the confines of traditional thinking. A limited number of nurse practitioners are selected for this highly coveted distinction each year.

Wheeler, a UK graduate ('81) and in practice for 29 years, will continue the tradition of contributing to the mission of the AANP and promoting the role of the nurse practitioner.

AANP formed in 1985 and is the oldest, largest and only full-service national professional organization of nurse practitioners of all specialties. With 28,000 individual members and 145 group members, AANP represents the interests of approximately 140,000 nurse practitioners around the country. AANP continually advocates for the active role of nurse practitioners as providers of high-quality, cost-effective and personalized healthcare.

Wheeler was one of two Kentuckians inducted into the FAANP on June 23, 2010 during the AANP national conference in Phoenix, Ariz.  Julie Marfell, from the Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing in Hyden, Ky., was also inducted.