NPACE , or Nurse Practitioner Associates for Continuing Education, is a non-profit organization

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 based in the United States that provides continuing education

Continuing education

Continuing education is an all-encompassing term within a broad spectrum of post-secondary learning activities and programs. The term is used mainly in the United States and Canada...

 to Nurse Practitioner

Nurse practitioner

A Nurse Practitioner is an Advanced practice registered nurse who has completed graduate-level education . Additional APRN roles include the Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist s, CNMs, and CNSs...

s and Advanced Practice Clinicians.

History

NPACE was formed in 1980 by a small group of New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

 Nurse Practitioners. At the time, there was a lack of conferences that addressed the specific educational requirements of Nurse Practitioners (NP). Up to this point, nurse practitioners attended educational conferences designed for physicians. Noticing this void, the NPACE founders’ vision was to develop continuing education programs “For Nurse Practitioners, by Nurse Practitioners.” It was the first formal organization to focus on the continuing education needs of nurse practitioners.

The first NPACE conferences were held in the Greater Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 area. Over a twelve year time span, NPACE continually expanded its reach. NPACE held its first national conference in Boston in 1992, with one thousand Nurse Practitioners from all over the country in attendance. NPACE began to expand its offerings to other geographic locations. Orlando, Florida

Orlando, Florida

Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...

 became a regular venue for an annual National Primary Care Conference, followed by the Midwest

Midwestern United States

The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....

, typically Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

. In response to the ever-evolving role of nurse practitioners, NPACE soon added specialty conferences to its calendar; including women’s health, older adult health

Geriatric nursing

Geriatric nursing is the specialty that concerns itself with the provision of nursing services to geriatric or aged individuals.-Geriatric nursing:...

, alternative/complementary health and pharmacology

Pharmacology

Pharmacology is the branch of medicine and biology concerned with the study of drug action. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function...

.

From 1997 - 2005 the NPACE peer-reviewed professional journal, Clinical Excellence for Nurse Practitioners, was published first by Churchill Livingstone and then by Springer Publishing Company.

NPACE celebrated the beginning of its 25th year at the Boston primary care conference in November 2007. All founding members returned and were honored at this event.

Accreditation

NPACE is an approved provider of continuing education by the Massachusetts Association of Registered Nurses (MARN), an accredited approver of the American Nurses Credentialing Center's

American Nurses Credentialing Center

The American Nurses Credentialing Center , a subsidiary of the American Nurses Association , is a certification body for nursing board certification and the largest certification body for advanced practice registered nurses in the United States , currently certifying over 75,000 APRNs...

Commission on Accreditation.