MOUNT VERNON – Knox Community Hospital joined health-care facilities across the country in observing National Advanced Practice Providers (APP) week (Sept. 26-30) to celebrate the efforts and patient care that these providers bring.

Advanced providers were essential long before the pandemic, and over the past couple of years, it has highlighted the lengths to which they are willing to go for their patients’ care and the well-being of their community. APP is an extension of physicians and is what allows KCH to have so many diverse specialties and serve the demanding need for health care.

Nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, physician assistants, nurse midwives and resisted nurse anesthetists are known as advanced practice providers. These professions all require an advanced graduate degree. APP (minus physician's assistants) must be a registered nurse before entering a master's program in nursing. They go on to pick a specialty in which they will practice for the duration of their career. A physician’s assistant has more variety in what they practice. They receive an education in general medicine and work alongside a physician, taking some of the daily duties off their plate and acting as an extension of the doctor. Nurse practitioners, midwives, nurse anesthetists and clinical nurse specialists work under their own licenses, allowing them more flexibility in their practice.

Advanced Provider Appreciation Week aims to educate the community on what an advanced provider is and how important they are to Knox Community Hospital and to the entire health-care system.