UPEI’s first Nurse Practitioner students off to a great start
UPEI's first students in the Nurse Practitioner stream of the two-year Master of Nursing program (MN)- Laurie Brehaut, Marion MacDonald, and Kelsey MacPhee- have completed their first year of study. Upon successful completion of their second year, and after writing their national certification, they will be the first NP students to receive didactic and clinical advanced practice nursing education here on the Island. The students bring a diversity of knowledge and experience to their work, and UPEI is being congratulated for introducing the program in September 2011, recognizing the need for this stream of health-care delivery.
This summer, Health PEI has hired the NP students into the Primary Health Care Networks, providing an opportunity for the students to develop their skills, serve as ambassadors of the NP role, and help raise awareness of the importance of the role in our health-care system.
Terri Kean, Nurse Practitioner and Assistant Professor in UPEI's School of Nursing, believes the willingness of UPEI to undertake the development of such a program speaks to the University's commitment to educating skilled health-care providers as a partial solution to health-care challenges.
'The Nurse Practitioner students are welcomed pioneers and ambassadors of a role that has proven itself time after time in all areas of nursing. This is history in the making... all who are involved in the delivery of patient care understand the planets have aligned, and the time for nurse practitioners is now,' said Kean.
Kean is not the only one to welcome these advanced practice nursing students; Dr. Lana Beth Barkhouse mentored one of the students during a placement this past semester. 'It's a brave step that the first NP students at UPEI have taken. Theirs is a relatively new role in primary health care on the Island and they are showing others how NPs are part of comprehensive health care,' she said. 'I am privileged to have been involved as a preceptor in these first years.'
Kean is currently working to secure fall clinical placements for the NP students. This past semester, the students worked with Central Queens Family Health Centre, Harbourside Health Centre and Dr. Barkhouse. The NP stream of the MN program has been well-received by physicians and nurse practitioners across PEI; there is currently a waiting list of providers hoping to work with a student NP.
Admission to the NP stream occurs every second year, with the next intake of students scheduled for 2013.
