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Courtesy Xochitl Mora,

(Laredo, Tx)-City of Laredo Mayor Raul G. Salinas welcomed local nurse practitioners to City Hall Council Chambers to celebrate and recognize their contributions to Laredo and society at large by proclaiming the week Nurse Practitioners Week in Laredo.  According to the proclamation ready by Mayor Salinas, there are more than 148,000 licensed Nurse Practitioners (NPs) in the United States with 75 in Webb county providing high-quality, cost-effective, patient-centered, personalized healthcare for nearly half a century. NPs have graduate, advanced education – most have master’s degrees and many have doctorates – and advanced clinical training beyond their initial registered nurse preparation. NPs order, perform and interpret diagnostic tests, diagnose and treat acute and chronic conditions and prescribe medications and other treatments. NPs are truly partners in the healthcare of their patients, so that in addition to clinical services, NPs focus on health promotion, disease prevention, and health education and counseling, guiding patients to make smarter health and lifestyle choices because the excellence, safety, and cost-effectiveness of the care provided by NPs is established and well-documented.  Finally, NPs provide healthcare to people of all ages and in diverse healthcare settings such as private office practice, hospitals, long-term care facilities, schools, state and local health departments, managed care facilities, and retail-based clinics; and more than 18 percent of NPs practice in rural settings with populations of less than 25,000; because it is documented that patients of NPs are given more personal time and attention than they traditionally receive from other healthcare providers.