INDIANAPOLIS -- As demand for
primary healthcare services exceeds capacity, the University of Indianapolis
and Franciscan St. Francis Health are expanding their educational partnership
to help more nurses advance their careers and become family nurse
practitioners.
Nurse practitioners
can counteract the growing shortage of primary care physicians by providing
such services as the initial evaluation of patients, ongoing care for chronic
diseases and preventive screenings and immunizations.
In August 2013,
under the new agreement, UIndy’s School of Nursing will begin offering Master
of Science courses with the Family Nurse Practitioner specialty at a Franciscan
St. Francis education facility near its Indianapolis hospital at 8111 S.
Emerson Ave.
Nurses with
bachelor’s degrees will enter the program in cohorts of 12 to 15, meet for evening
classes and clinical experiences designed to fit their work schedules, and
emerge three years later with an advanced degree. Franciscan St. Francis will
provide tuition reimbursement for nurses from its Indianapolis, Mooresville and
Carmel hospitals and its physician practices in the area.
According to
projections, Franciscan St. Francis needs to add more than 100 nurse
practitioners to its system by 2016 to meet the demand for primary care.
“We are so happy to
be partnering once again with University of Indianapolis to provide our nurses
the educational opportunity to continue their Franciscan ministry in an advance
practice role,” said Susan McRoberts, regional vice president and chief nursing officer for
Franciscan St. Francis Health.
The new program is
the third master’s degree partnership between the two organizations, joining
two ongoing programs that focus on nursing
education and health systems leadership.
Anne Thomas, dean of
UIndy’s School of Nursing, praised Franciscan St. Francis for its progressive
approach to the issue.
“The graduates of this new partnership will
provide high-quality primary care services in a system that is a team-based,
interdisciplinary and patient-centered,” Thomas said. “This is another example
of St. Francis moving forward in a rapidly changing healthcare environment and
creatively meeting patient needs through academic partnerships.”
