Doctor Professor Nurse Logan

aka Paul Logan, PhD, CRNP, ACNP-BC

The Name

It started at scout camp one summer. Forty-two early teen age boys found it hilarious that I'm a nurse. They declared me "Nurse Logan."

Then when I started teaching, my son—the ring leader—updated the moniker to "Professor Nurse Logan."

Since getting a PhD, it has morphed into "Doctor Professor Nurse Logan," which is just as absurd as it sounds.

As Mel Brooks famously said, "Relax, none of us are getting out of here alive." So let's not take ourselves too seriously. I'll start!

The Background

I started my career at the National Institutes of Health right out of nursing school—a US Public Health Service scholarship got me there. In 1994, I graduated from Penn and became one of the first acute care nurse practitioners in the country.

Since then, I've practiced cardiology in Greater Philadelphia and Central Pennsylvania for over 30 years. I've watched countless APPs come into specialty practices and struggle to learn what they need—with mixed success. Some practices have robust onboarding. Most don't. It's nobody's fault. Specialty practice is busy and there's not always time or resources to get new APPs up to speed.

In 1999, I wrote Principles of Practice for the Acute Care Nurse Practitioner—at the time, the only textbook for ACNPs. (Good luck finding a copy. I know my mother had one.)

I taught in Penn State's BSN and acute care NP programs for 10 years before moving to Saint Joseph's University, where I now direct the AG-ACNP program. I still practice cardiology at WellSpan—because if I'm going to teach you how to do this job, I should probably still be doing it myself.

I've also built and sold a healthcare technology company (Logan Solutions, 2003–2021). Turns out I like solving problems for clinicians, whether that's workflow software or cardiology education.

APP Cardiology Academy is the latest solution.

The Credentials

• 30+ years of cardiovascular clinical practice
• One of the first acute care nurse practitioners in the United States (Penn, 1994)
• Author, Principles of Practice for the Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (Appleton & Lange, 1999)
• Director, Adult Gerontology Acute Care NP Program, Saint Joseph's University
• Member, American College of Cardiology Advanced Practice Nurses Workgroup (2016–present)
• Item writer, National ACNP Certification Examination (ANCC/AACN)
• Peer Reviewer of the Year, The Nurse Practitioner journal (2024)
• National speaker on cardiovascular topics (AANP, AACN NTI, state conferences)
• Researcher studying durable learning in nursing education
• Founder, Logan Solutions (healthcare technology company, 2003–2021)

The Philosophy

I care about durable learning—teaching methods that make knowledge permanent, so that book knowledge readily translates to the clinical setting.

This isn't just a teaching philosophy I adopted. I'm actively researching it. My work with the Big 10 Nursing Education Research Collaborative focuses specifically on what makes learning stick—and what doesn't.

Every lecture, every clinical pearl, every assessment activity in APP Cardiology Academy is designed with one question in mind: Will this help you take better care of patients six months from now?

If not, we're not doing it.