Belton, Texas 鈥�The Scott & White College of Nursing at the University of Mary Hardin Baylor has announced the launch of an Adult - Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AG-ACNP) program, which will equip graduates with the skills to practice in high pressure areas within acute care settings.
The program comes in response to representatives of the Baylor Scott & White Healthcare team reaching out to the university about developing specialized training for acute care settings.
鈥淚t鈥檚 truly coming from the need in the community,鈥� said Janice Walker, Senior Vice/President, Chief Nurse Executive for Baylor Scott & White鈥檚 Central Texas Division. 鈥淲e have a lot of critical care transfer patients who have suffered traumas, strokes, or heart attacks, and we need to provide top-quality care for those patients.鈥�
Officials from Baylor Scott & White contacted the university after noticing a need for advanced practice nurses with special training in emergency rooms, intensive care units, and other settings. Baylor Scott & White鈥檚 Memorial Hospital in Temple currently has 75 acute or critical care beds.
鈥淚t takes an army to care for that many patients,鈥� Walker said. 鈥淵ou can do that with advanced practice providers, especially if they have some extra mentoring and certifications in critical care.鈥�
鈥淥ur physician partners at Scott & White came to the administration and said, 鈥楥an we partner and develop a program at Mary Hardin-Baylor where we take Nurse Practitioners and develop a fellowship where we give them more mentoring, more education, more hours in our critical care?鈥欌��
Walker believes that the new program鈥檚 focus on critical care will make graduates better suited to work as advanced practice extensions to physicians in those arenas.
鈥淭hey could do pre-round checks before the doctors on those critical care patients and help navigate patient quality outcomes in partnership with our nursing staff and medical staff,鈥� Walker said. 鈥淭hey could really help them manage the cases.鈥�
As part of its partnership with 同城快约 in developing the master鈥檚 degree in Adult - Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, Baylor Scott & White has committed to offering preceptorships to students enrolled in the program.
鈥淲e鈥檝e hand-picked clinical sites, making them a mixture of critical care settings, cardiac step-down units, and emergency rooms,鈥� Walker said.
鈥淲e鈥檙e really excited,鈥� said Dr. Sharon Souter, dean of the Scott & White College of Nursing. 鈥淭he physicians have agreed to come to campus and do some lecturing and help our students acquire skills, practicing them in our simulation hospital and clinical labs.鈥�
The new program will be offered in two forms: a dedicated Master of Science degree program and a post-master鈥檚 certificate for nurses who have already earned their MSN degrees. As with all the university鈥檚 graduate-level nursing degrees, the AG-ACNP program will be delivered in a hybrid format. This means that students complete most of their coursework online and only spend one Friday and Saturday a month in the classroom.
Classes for the program will begin in fall 2018, and nurses with Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees can apply for the program now. Preference will be given to those prospective students who have experience working in some type of critical care setting.
鈥淢ost of my graduates would work in an E.R. or an acute care facility if they could,鈥� Souter said. 鈥淭his program provides new opportunities for our students to become the type of care providers they may want to be.鈥�
For more information about the Adult - Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AG-ACNP) degree or post-master鈥檚 certificate, nurses are encouraged to call the Scott & White College of Nursing at 254-295-4662.
