In This Issue:

- What Is a Nurse Practitioner?

- An Expanding Role

- The Money Issue

- Bottom Line: Focus on the Patient

- Recent Health CareNews You ShouldKnow About

- Check Out Our Previous Tips

- Excerpt from Nurse Practitioners as Primary Care Providers:

More and more of us are facing this scenario in the doctor's office: "Your nurse will see you now."

Wait a minute, you say. "Don't I deserve to be seen by a real doctor?"

In this issue, we focus on why that very natural reaction is outmoded thinking. Nurse practitioners to many patients are "new" players in health care. Actually, they've been around a while. And as more people get more and better health coverage, these highly trained professionals will play a larger role; for some people, they will even serve as primary care providers.

This month we look at who these professionals are and why their expanding role is a good thing for us patients and for the health-care system.