Nurse Practitioner program to
celebrate 40th anniversary
From the seed of an idea planted by Dr. Loretta Ford and the late Dr. Henry
Silver 40 years ago at the University of Colorado, the Nurse Practitioner
program has grown into a global movement.
The nurse practitioner role was developed in 1965 at CU’s Schools of
Nursing and Medicine when a shortage of primary care physicians provided
an opportunity to demonstrate advanced practice in nursing. Drawing from
Dr. Ford’s background as a public health nurse and Dr. Silver’s
pediatric expertise, together they developed an advanced educational program
that focused on the expansion and empowerment of the registered nurse’s
role in health care delivery.
Loretta Ford, EdD, FAAN, is an esteemed health care professional whose
pioneering vision 40 years ago created a new advanced practice role for
nurses in Community
Health Services.
“Nurse practitioners have become embedded in every aspect of health care,” said
Dr. Ford. “In a great sense, nurse practitioners have transformed
the profession of nursing.”
With a $7,000 grant from the CU School of Medicine, they implemented a
demonstration project in 1965 to establish an NP program. The focus of
the curriculum was
on the extended role of the nurse within the community. Two years later
they published the positive results of their study in the American
Journal of
Nursing.
CU’s program began as a certificate program, but required that enrolling
students have at least a BS degree in nursing. It later became a master’s
degree program.
The NP idea was initially met with resistance from nursing organizations
and nurse educators in universities, as well as some physicians, according
to Dr. Ford. Undaunted, she was determined to carry on with the program,
and continue publishing research results.
“We described our training program, educational standards and acceptance
from patients and the physicians with whom we worked,” she said. “Henry
Silver and I did a survey of health needs and it corroborated what I and
other public health nurses had experienced, that clinical decision making
by nurses would appreciably improve the health care of people, particularly
in maternal and child populations.”
NP programs were developed to provide additional education for registered
nurses so they could provide health care services to underserved areas.
The first program was in pediatrics, but the resulting impact of NPs can
now
be felt in many health care specialties.
Their impact is also felt in graduate
nursing education, leadership in health care organizations, and in relationships
with other health professionals, as well as the public’s perception
and acceptance of them. With a strong emphasis on primary care, NPs focus
on health maintenance, disease prevention, counseling and patient education.
In addition to providing primary, specialty and acute healthcare, nurse
practitioners strive to empower patients to improve their health by providing
health education
and counseling. The core philosophy is individualized care, focusing on
prevention, wellness and patient education.
“The NP program has created tremendous changes in the individual nurse
practitioners and the institutions in which they serve, whether it’s legislation,
education or practice,” said Ford.”
A tireless advocate of the NP role, Dr. Ford went through the program herself
in order to put into practice what she was advocating and to lend credibility
to her efforts.
“I believe faculty should be involved in some aspect of practice,” she
said. “In practice you analyze and develop hypotheses about clinical
nursing problems that are relevant to improving practice and the study
of it. If you believe in it, you have to be credible.”
For 40 years, NPs have been competent, cost-effective health care providers,
serving wherever they are needed, from rural areas and prisons, to schools,
homes and overseas missions.
CU offered its first continuing education symposium for NPs in 1975. This
year marks the 30th anniversary of the Nurse Practitioner Symposium. Organizers
are planning a celebration of the history of the symposium and the nurse
practitioner role, as well as a peek at what the future may hold for the
profession.
Entrepreneurship, Dr. Ford believes, is the next avenue for nurse practitioners.
Signs of this are already evident. An example is the “minute clinics” set
up in such venues as malls and large retail stores. Those clinics provide
health care services to people who ordinarily would go to the emergency room
as the only resource available to them.
“I’d like to see more nurses in political positions and making policy,” said
Dr. Ford.
“There’s no way NPs are not going to expand. Our future
is limitless.”
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