CONWAY—Nelda New, assistant professor, has been selected as a 2014 Fellow in the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. New will be inducted at the organization’s annual meeting in Nashville, Tenn., on June 19.
Upon induction, New will become the sixth Arkansas nurse practitioner (NP) recognized as an AANP Fellow from a total of 416 nationally.
Established by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) in 2000, the Fellows of the AANP (FAANP) is dedicated to the global advancement of nurse practitioners (NP) and the high-quality health care they deliver.
“Through the years I’ve sought every opportunity to not only improve my knowledge and skills but also to improve health care delivery and nursing education in every position I’ve held. Now to have those efforts recognized as worthy of this honor is incredible,” New said. “Being a fellow for the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners is a tremendous honor.”
AANP Fellows are selected based on outstanding contributions to clinical practice, research, education or policy presented by sponsoring fellows.
New’s sponsoring fellows focused on her commitment to education and clinical practice. They named her contributions to the conversion of UCA’s master of science program for NP to online delivery which resulted in a 400 percent increase in enrollment for the track. New also participated in the development of the doctor of nursing practice which will be offered beginning in June 2014.
In clinical practice, the sponsoring fellows highlighted New’s work with the Maumelle Medical Clinic as a place where nurse practitioners could practice on a part-time basis. Her work with developing the UCA Student Health Clinic into a full service health care clinic with nurse practitioners and physician providers was also presented and her ongoing clinical practice.
“When I was three years old, I told a family friend that I wanted to be a nurse when I grew up and by age 14 I was working in a hospital as a volunteer helping the nurses and physical therapists and have not stopped working in nursing since then,” New said.
The AANP is the largest professional membership organization for NPs of all specialties. It represents the interests of the nation’s 171,000 NPs, including more than 46,000 individual members and 203 groups, providing a unified networking platform and advocating for their role as providers of high-quality, cost-effective, comprehensive, patient-centered and personalized health care.
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