Faculty members are engaged in the scientific investigation of nursing practice and theory, innovative nursing care, and participation in national, state, and local activities related to nursing and health care delivery. Thus, they serve as role models for students, the profession, and the public. The program constitutes an arena for excellence in nursing practice and research, as well as a forum for discussion and analysis of issues that affect health care, consumers, the nursing profession, and society. The Acute Care Nurse Practitioner specialty is designed to prepare nurse practitioners to provide care for chronically ill, acutely ill, and critically ill patients. Students receive didactic content about diseases across the illness trajectory, thus enabling students to learn about the chronic nature of many illnesses in addition to the acute episodic problems and critical care aspects of these same illnesses.
Special options are available in trauma, oncology, and nephrology.
Enrollment in these options will be limited by availability of preceptors. Since these nurse practitioners work in a wide variety of settings, with patients who have a range of health-related problems, the program emphasizes primary care of the adult as well as the special health needs of the incarcerated population. Students will gain an understanding of the culture of the correctional health delivery system, assess and manage health problems common to the incarcerated population, and evaluate correctional health workplace safety. The program examines the social, economic, regulatory, and legal context of correctional health and gives students strategies for effective case management of this special patient population. Adult Nurse Practitioner Certification exam.