ISAPN Member Interviewed in Rockford Register Star
Friday, May 14, 2010
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Posted by: Michelle Miles
Shannon Lizer, ISAPN member, was interviewed in the Rockford Register Star about St Anthony College of Nursing's Nurse Practitioner Program.
Nurse Practitioners to Help Fill Growing Health Care Need By Melissa Westphal
ROCKFORD — Saint Anthony College of Nursing is fulfilling part of
federal health care reform efforts by establishing a nurse practitioner
program to address the need for more primary care providers.
College officials recognized the importance of such a program a few
years ago, with the need to bolster primary care services for
underserved patients who are coming to hospitals sicker than ever
before.
"Our community is not unlike others — there will be a need for nurse
practitioners and primary health care and health promotion as a focus of
care in our community,” said Dr. Shannon Lizer, who will head the
college’s family nurse practitioner program.
Nurse practitioners are advanced-practice nurses whose duties are
similar to those of physicians, from diagnosing and treating illnesses
to educating patients about disease prevention.
"Health care is so complex anymore. So many aspects really require
broader thinking and higher levels of education,” she said. "And when
you get down to it, there’s a lot of care that needs to be delivered.”
Katie Carlovsky has been a nurse for 24 years and got her acute-care
nurse practitioner certification in 2006. She works at OSF Saint Anthony
Medical Center and said she was most interested in pursuing
"collaborative practice” with other providers.
"I assist our physicians in rounding on every patient on the unit, and
we have multidisciplinary levels of care,” Carlovsky said. "My role is
to help pull everything together across those disciplines ... and there
will be new opportunities for advanced practice with health care
reform.”
Lizer said the region could see more nurse-led clinics open as the area
expands nursing degrees. Those already exist in rural areas and in
underserved communities that have few, if any, physicians, while
Walgreens Take Care Clinics staff their sites with nurse practitioners
with physicians available for consultation.
Having nurse practitioners available to partner with physicians frees
up the physicians for other duties.
"Economically, it’s a supportive relationship in terms of practice and
balance,” Lizer said. "When it works, it works really, really well.
Physicians are taught more of the disease-illness model, and that’s very
good. Nurse practitioners are taught more of the health promotion and
wellness model. Put those two together, and they’re complimentary, not
mutually exclusive.”
What it entails: Nurse practitioner students take
classes like theoretical practice of nursing, nursing research, advanced
statistics and advanced physical assessment. While there are many nurse
practitioner specialties, the Saint Anthony program will offer a family
nurse practitioner tract, a generalist tract that focuses on primary
care and families.
What’s required: Students enter the program as registered
nurses with bachelor’s degrees and graduate with a master’s. Eventually,
officials said, the program could offer a doctoral degree as the
nursing industry moves toward requiring more education and training.
How long it takes: The program will take about three years for
a full-time student to complete. The intensive clinical work puts
nursing in line with other clinical areas like pharmacy and occupational
therapy.
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