Involvement in and reflections upon nine years of change in nursing and health care provide the framework for this commentary on the article, "Nurse Practitioners for Children—Past and Future" by McAtee and Silver.1 My earlier association with Silver as a co-director of the first pediatric nurse practitioner project at the University of Colorado makes these comments, hopefully, like conversations and challenges between colleagues. My remarks address those issues concerned with establishing priorities in the preparation of teacher-practitioners, the development of interdisciplinary collaboration, the need for studies of effectiveness of nurse practitioners, and an opinion on the recommendation to prepare "assistant nurse practitioners."
The evolving role of the pediatric nurse practitioner in hospital medicine
