COVID-19 has disrupted nursing education in so many ways. With the nursing community focused on containing the spread of the coronavirus and on treating those who have contracted the disease, the need for providers who can focus their time and effort on primary care is greater than ever. One of the progressively growing fields is that of Nurse Practitioners.
This profession requires advanced training beyond a Bachelor’s degree to diagnose, prescribe, and treat to meet the primary care shortage gap. The eagerness to capitalize on this field has led to potentially dangerous gaps in the quality of education and training NP students receive. In tragic cases, lapses in quality have led to patient deaths and major lawsuits.
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“As a graduate of a hybrid program, there are many concerns in NP education that need to be addressed for one becoming a provider solely online during a pandemic,” explains Dr. Little. “It’s a relatively progressive field that addresses the national primary care shortage, which means that there are opportunities to make the providers more qualified to fill in those gaps. The services we offer are designed to help cultivate students’ thinking to avoid regurgitation of a textbook. When it comes to advanced training, repetition is key. Unfortunately, there is not enough downtime in the rigor of the program for NP students to retain core information and enough hours in hands-on training for some to practice effectively after graduation. Our goal is to foster a new generation of NPs to see the red flags, differentiate the zebras, address the most common complaints, and provide culturally competent care.”
