IBJ: UIndy embraces growing role for nurse practitioners in hospitals

The University of Indianapolis is launching a program this month to prepare nurse practitioners, long a fixture in primary care exam rooms, to care for complex and critically ill patients in hospitals.

The adult/gerontological acute-care nurse practitioner track within UIndy’s graduate school of nursing is beginning with seven students—with room to expand to 15. Adult/gerontological acute care is a specialty that’s growing amid predictions of a looming shortage of advanced care providers and physicians in the coming years.

Nurse practitioners—who have advanced education and training beyond their registered nurse training and experience—do much of the same work as physicians, including diagnosing conditions, writing prescriptions and educating patients or helping them manage chronic conditions. [continue reading]