Brooke Kolhagen

Primary care teams operate in tightly structured systems shaped by necessary guidelines, standards, and regulatory oversight. But anyone practicing in primary care knows that patient needs rarely line up perfectly with templates and protocols. That's where team creativity comes in.

Continuing education is always on the radar in NP practice, and several upcoming events offer ways to earn those hours. This lineup includes both in-person conferences and virtual options, covering a wide range of specialties and clinical interests. We take a closer look at what’s coming up and what each event brings to the table.

New federal initiatives point to a recalibration of how addiction treatment and recovery are defined at the federal level. Clinicians may soon need to confront a practical question: What does addiction care look like when harm reduction and housing-focused interventions are no longer treated as legitimate components of recovery?

On January 29, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order launching the Great American Recovery Initiative, a new federal task force for addressing substance use disorder. The Initiative champions coordination across sectors and a focus on recovery, but also has deeper ramifications for the future of addiction care.

2025 was a turbulent year in healthcare. But despite these pressures, patients had high expectations for their providers. Zocdoc’s 2025 What Patients Want report analyzed how patients navigated care in 2025, drawing from patient experiences, search trends, and booking behavior, We break down what the report signals for nurse practitioners and the future of care delivery.

The concept of shared decision-has been propelled into the spotlight as a result of the CDC’s vaccine schedule overhaul, but public knowledge of shared decision-making is far from complete. That means nurse practitioners who work with children and families weighing immunization decisions must forge workflows around shared decision-making. 

On January 5, the HHS announced an abrupt and significant overhaul of the childhood vaccination schedule, reducing the number of universally recommended childhood immunizations from 17 to 11. Learn what's changing and what nurse practitioners can anticipate in the exam room.

With the new year comes a new crop of nurse practitioner conferences across specialties and practice settings, designed to bring together clinicians, educators, and researchers for immersive learning and connection. NP 411's guide highlights some of the conference opportunities available to NPs this year.

In his 2024 campaign, now-president Donald Trump repeatedly promised to make IVF “free for every American family who wants it,” recognizing fertility treatment as...

The World Health Organization recently released its first guideline on GLP-1 medications for obesity management. This recognition could have potential ripple effects on stigma reduction and access, both of which are sorely needed in obesity treatment.