Nurse practitioners are ‘registered nurses with additional educational preparation and experience who possess and demonstrate the competencies to autonomously diagnose, order and interpret diagnostic tests, prescribe pharmaceuticals and perform specific procedures within their legislated scope of practice.’(1) While they may work in many settings, our focus here is their work in primary healthcare settings. The optimal definition and term for ‘primary healthcare’ is contested, despite there often being significant areas of agreement by those promoting particular definitions and terms. In the interests of pragmatism, we use the term ‘primary healthcare,’ which encompasses more than the healthcare that is typically connoted by the term ‘primary care.’ However, we recognize that much of what we discuss is focused on a more narrow interpretation of primary care.