"Since the emergency medicine specialty's inception in the 1960s, APRNs have worked alongside physician colleagues providing emergency care to patients of all ages and acuities. As emergency care evolved and ED census levels rapidly grew during the 1990s, utilization of APRNs was essential to increasing emergency staffing, efficiency, patient satisfaction, and quality of care. The growing need for APRNs prepared with emergency-specific competencies resulted in the creation of the emergency nurse practitioner (ENP) profession and the establishment of educational and training programs to support the role"--
