The National Association of Pediatric Nurse Associates and Practitioners (NAPNAP) Collection comprises materials principally dating from 1993 to 1997, with small numbers of earlier and later items. This collection of documents is sequential to a larger and earlier manuscript collection housed in the Department of Historical Collections and Services, University of Virginia Claude Moore Health Sciences Library: The Papers of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, 1972-1992, MS-20. Researchers are advised to consult both collections.
As with the Health Sciences NAPNAP Papers, the Nursing History Center NAPNAP Collection contains materials created by the administrative activities of the Association's national office as well as certain chapter-level correspondence and newsletters. These items represent a logical continuance of the activities documented in the earlier collection, renewed each fiscal year by an elected president and executive board, and implemented by the permanent national office staff. Researchers concerned with the formation and early years of the Association should review – in addition to the Health Sciences materials – the 1973-78 Executive Board meeting minutes (01-009) and the oral history materials (available digitally), part of a special donation by Barbara H. Dunn to the Nursing History Center and catalogued with the present collection.
From the Health Sciences Collection description, by archivist Susan Swasta: "The National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners was founded in 1973 as a non-profit organization devoted to improving child health care and representing the interests of pediatric nurse practitioners/associates. In May of that year PNPs from around the country met in Columbus, Ohio to discuss affiliation with an existing nursing or medical professional group. They concluded that PNPs would best be served by their own specialty nursing organization, and scheduled a national meeting in October. At that meeting, with the unanimous vote of 400 PNPs, NAPNAP was born. "During the first few years NAPNAP focused on defining standards for PNP education and practice, on developing a certification process for PNPs, and on refining its organizational structure and goals. Early on, the organization also began to monitor health legislation and to actively marshal support among its constituents for specific legislative platforms. As NAPNAP matured, its activities expanded to include advising state boards of nursing, producing materials to educate consumers on childcare, and providing opportunities and funding for continuing education of PNPs."
The NAPNAP Collection follows the established arrangement of series and subseries: Series 1: Administrative Office Documents Subseries 1: Historical Documents Subseries 2: Annual Reports and Bylaws Subseries 3: Meeting Minutes Subseries 4: Correspondence and Related Documents Series 2: Publications and Manuals Series 3: Chapters Documents
No additional photographs (Series 4) were contained in the Nursing History Center donation, and the audio tapes (Series 5) and video tapes (Series 6) are undergoing a process of digitization, URL location forthcoming. The originals are not available to researchers without special permission from archives staff.