VA/DoD Post-Master's Adult Nurse Practitioner Distance Learning Program FromConcept to Graduation

摘要

This report describes a cooperative project between the Nursing StrategicHealthcare Group of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Graduate School of Nursing (GSN), Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USIJS), to provide a post-master's adult nurse practitioners educational program to nurses of the Department of Veterans Affairs through the technology of distance learning. The project was initiated in 1996 in response to a restructuring of the care provided in VA health facilities that called for a 200 percent increase in the number of primary care providers. Responding to this goal, the VA Nursing Strategic Healthcare Group of the Office of Patient Care Services recommended that existing master's prepared nurses obtain additional knowledge and skills as nurse practitioners so they could ten fulfill the need for primary care services. Since the GSN was interested in developing a distance learning program to supplement its in-house family nurse practitioners and nurse anesthesia programs, a partnership between the GSN and VA was formed to create an adult nurse practitioner distance learning program that would build on the existing preparation of nurses who already hold a master's degree.