Few people realize that the loans they take out to pay for their education could eventually derail their careers. But in 19 states, government agencies can seize state-issued professional licenses from residents who default on their educational debts.

Professional associations play an important role in stimulating and diffusing clinical innovation in health care by influencing quality, safety, and patient outcomes. Nurses—the largest group of health professionals in the U.S. at 3.2 million—are ideally positioned to identify, create, and sustain innovative improvements in patient care.

Research has demonstrated that the nurse practitioner's expanded role has resulted in comparable and sometimes better patient outcomes than those of physicians. States with full practice authority have a statistically significant higher percentage of women than those with restricted practice.

Researchers suggest that there may be a stronger link between ADHD and sleep problems than hitherto believed, and that the two may not be completely separate issues after all. Data reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that approximately 11 percent of children aged 4 to 17 are diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the United States.