HISTORY OF LANP

LANP Mission Statement

The purposes of LANP are to advance, support, and promote the roles of Nurse Practitioners and promote accessible, quality health care by nurse practitioners. The goals of LANP are to market the Nurse Practitioner roles and enhance their image, affect legislation concerning nurse practitioners, act as a resource group for Nurse Practitioners, promote communication and networking among Nurse Practitioners, establish channels for communication and cooperation with other groups who share, support, or complement the purposes of LANP, and provide a forum for continuing education and research programs for Nurse Practitioners.

LANP History

There were twenty-eight in attendance at the first organizational meeting of what would become the Louisiana Association of Nurse Practitioners (LANP) on Saturday, July 28, 1990.  Laurie Hitchcock, who later became the first LANP president, led the group.  The purpose of the meeting was to meet, talk, support one another, discuss establishing a formal organization, and to gain a basic understanding of the law as it applied to Nurse Practitioners (NPs).  The role of the Nurse Practitioner had not yet been established.  Neither patients, nurses, nor most doctors had any idea what a valuable commodity Nurse Practitioners could be for providing quality patient care.

The speakers at this meeting were Dr. Edna Trueting, Chief Nurse for the Louisiana State Department of Health, and Mical DeBrow, Executive Director of the Louisiana State Nurses Association.  Dr. Trueting spoke on the development of the first Nurse Practitioner training program in Louisiana established at Tulane University New Orleans in 1973, and Mical DeBrow spoke about the state law governing advanced practice and current matters affecting NPs at both the state and national level.

LANP was incorporated in October of 1991.  At the time, meetings were usually held in motel rooms in the Baton Rouge/New Orleans area with about 12 to 14 people in attendance. Of course, these were self-funded meetings and many of these Nurse Practitioners had full-time positions, either in clinics or in academia, often requiring them to take a vacation day to attend. Personal contributions of $100.00 were submitted on several different occasions to assist with printed materials and the funding of meetings.

It was imperative that the Nurse Practice Act governing practice be amended. Only a couple of paragraphs pertaining to Primary Care Associates (not allowed to be addressed as nurse “practitioners”) were found in the practice guidelines. The verbiage was vague and limiting. The Louisiana State Board of Nursing (LSBN) became involved along with the Medical Board and the Pharmacy Board. There was an informal meeting with members of the Medical Board held in Baton Rouge in the fall of 1994.  The Medical Board’s major concern at the meeting seemed to be, “Why would a Licensed Practical Nurse want to prescribe medications?”  The other concern was that we would all be out there giving Demerol to everyone. At this point, we learned that we had to start at the grass roots level and make education our major priority to the public, doctors, legislators, and other professionals who would be involved in the process.  It was evident that no one seemed to know what a Nurse Practitioner was and, certainly, no one knew anything about the NP’s scope of practice. There were no colleges in Louisiana that offered a Nurse Practitioner program. This would not occur until 1993 when Northwestern State University School of Nursing offered the first Family Nurse Practitioner Program in 1993 with Dr. Wanda Thompson at the helm.

Under the direction and watchful eye of the LSBN, a demonstration project was initiated and 32 Nurse Practitioners from various areas of Louisiana were invited to participate. Data was collected from the patient treated by the NP, the NP, and the doctor who supervised the NP. Some of the areas addressed in the documents were correctness of the diagnosis, appropriateness of medication prescribed, over-all patient satisfaction of the NP with the care received, and outcomes of treatment on follow-up visits.  Those NPs participating in the demonstration project were allowed to write and sign prescriptions for the first time. The data were collected and statistically analyzed by Dr. Hamric and the results indicated that those NPs who had participated had diagnosed and  treated appropriately, with very successful outcomes, and the patients were extremely satisfied with the care that had been provided.  Now, we had substantial data to move forward and start our long and treacherous legislative process.

Again, there was no funding for the seemingly insurmountable task. There would be numerous trips to Baton Rouge to the capitol to lobby, meet with legislative committees, and to continue to educate at the grass roots level. There were only a few physicians in the state bold enough to hire a Nurse Practitioner. One of those very special physicians was Senator/Dr. Don Hines from Bunkie, LA. He was very satisfied with the care provided by his Nurse Practitioner (Carol Rosier) and he became our major advocate.  He took time out of his private practice to attend the many legislative meetings and to sponsor our bill. The bill to allow us to practice was introduced in 1996. LANP had no money, no lobbyist, and was told by numerous legislators that the bill would never pass. The medical society did everything possible to block our progress, but with our persistence and dedication to our mission, our bill passed. Then, the work began and continues to be a constant challenge to preserve what we fought so hard to achieve and to keep plodding onward. We truly chopped down a tree one leaf at a time! Our task both professionally and politically is never done. Fortunately, we now have two expert lobbyists who remain constantly vigilant in our state’s politics to safeguard what we have fought so hard to reach and to assure that our Advanced Practice Registered Nurses are represented in our state government and heard by our legislators.  

Since that time, LANP has done much and continues to advance the recognition of Nurse Practitioners around the state, help promote the authority of NPs through legislation, encourage continuing education for nurses with regional meetings, and orchestrate an annual Primary Care Conference every year since 1995.  LANP has grown from twenty members to over 850 annual members with an elected Executive Committee of twenty.  Our regional groups also are active in serving their communities through service and volunteerism. Nationally, LANP is represented by one elected NP who serves as a liaison with the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (formed in 1985), and one appointed NP who serves as a liaison with the American College of Nurse Practitioners (formed in 2003).