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With increased mobility, it is important that individuals keep their own personal health records (PHRs). Nurse practitioners are encouraged to assume greater responsibility for PHR adoption and recognize the key role they play in recommending PHR use. This article also briefly discusses college students' perceptions of their exposure to online PHRs.

An instrument must be tested for validity and reliability before it can be used to measure the variables of interest specified in the research design. If the instrument is not valid and reliable, then the results of a study have limited credibility or usefulness in practice. The process is meticulous, but the results are gratifying when new data on nurse practitioners can be generated.

This descriptive, correlational investigation was designed to examine the attitudes/values held by nurse practitioners concerning their roles, self-assessment of their skills/knowledge, and orientation toward a nursing or medical model to guide practice. The results indicate that the nurse practitioners in this sample have a high degree of confidence in their skills and knowledge and have a fairly strong nursing orientation in their practice. The great deal of variability in responses to items concerned with audit, quality assurance and financial aspects of the role have important implications for nurse practitioner education and practice.