Registered Nurses are the most trusted Healthcare professionals in the Country (according to the 2006 Gallup Poll) and the public views nurses as their advocate when facing healthcare challenges. There are more than 17,000 registered Professional Nurses in Suffolk County and they are the largest group of healthcare providers.

Professional Nurses diagnose and treat the human responses to actual or potential health problems. In the provision of nursing care, nurses use the nursing process, a systematic approach to nursing care, based on theoretical and scientific foundations. Nursing is both an art and a science. Guided by the profession's standards for nursing practice and serving within its code of ethics, nurses provide care, including health promotion, health maintenance, and treatment during illness and rehabilitation, to all people across the life span and in all settings.

Registered Nurses provide direct patient care in a wide variety of settings, including hospitals, public health clinics, home care, Long-term care, Nursing Homes, hospices, schools, jails, colleges and university nursing programs. Professional nurses also provide primary care services as Advanced Nurse Practitioners, Midwives and Clinical Nurse Specialists.

Registered professional nurses are recognized as essential providers of health care services and as the primary advocates for the public. In New York, the nurse practices in accordance with the provisions of the state's Nurse Practice Act. Each nurse is individually accountable for actions taken or delegated in the provision of nursing care.

Mary Beth Koslap-Petraco, CPNP
2006 - The Henry K. Silver Award by NAPNAP
	Mary Beth Koslap-Petraco, MS, CPNP, received the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners; Henry K. Silver Award at their 2006 Annual Conference in Washington, DC. This is the highest award given by NAPNAP to a pediatric nurse practitioner who has furthered the role of nurse practitioners and has made a significant contribution to the health care of children on the national and international levels. Mary Beth said "For me this Award is a reflection on all of the phenomenal nurses who work in the Suffolk County Department of Health Services. It is an honor for all of our nurses, not only me." Mary Beth is the first nurse practitioner named to the National Vaccine Advisory Committee. She has presented numerous research papers at the CDC’s National Immunization Conference and currently published an article on rotavirus gastroenteritis, in the Journal of American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. Mary Beth is the Coordinator -Child Health for the Suffolk County Department of Health Services. She is a clinical Assistant Professor at SUNY Stony Brook School of Nursing.