UF establishes acute care nurse practitioner program
The University of Florida College of Nursing is now accepting applications for a new acute care nurse practitioner program, which will begin spring 2002 at both the Gainesville and Jacksonville campuses.
Acute care nurse practitioners provide advanced treatments and care for acutely ill patients who have multiple and complex health problems. The patients are physically unstable and highly vulnerable to complications. Acute care nurse practitioners work in collaboration with physicians in a variety of acute care settings, such as intensive care units or emergency rooms.
The new program is designed for nurses who already have completed a master’s degree in adult, family or geriatric practitioner nursing and who have worked in an acute care setting. The program consists of three courses and three clinical labs, and will result in a certificate of completion.
“There is a tremendous need for advanced nursing practice in acute care to meet the rising complexity of acute and critical care nursing,” said Joyce Stechmiller, A.R.N.P., Ph.D., a UF associate professor of nursing and chairwoman of the college’s adult and elderly nursing department. “Patients are older and sicker and require a greater intensity of nursing care.
Meanwhile, the demand for master’s prepared nurses for advanced practice in acute care has outstripped the supply.”
While no specific statistics exist regarding the nursing shortage in specialty areas, requests for traveling critical care nurses, who fill staffing gaps at hospitals, has skyrocketed in every part of the United States in the last year, according to the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. The increase in requests ranges from 45 percent for adult critical care units to 140 percent for emergency departments.
The courses in the new program will be Web-based, while the clinical labs will be arranged individually to better accommodate employed students. However, students will meet on one of the two campuses three times during each 16-week semester.
Rosalyn Reischman, A.R.N.P., D.S.N., an assistant professor of nursing at the UF Health Science Center Jacksonville, and Lori Thomas, A.R.N.P., M.S.N., a clinical assistant professor of nursing on the Gainesville campus, will be instructors for the program. Both professors are nationally board-certified acute care nurse practitioners.