Tackling the need for advanced nursing care, as well as Indiana’s dismal record on women’s health, the University of Indianapolis is launching two new options for graduate students in its School of Nursing.
Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner is a new specialty track for students in UIndy’s two-year Master of Science in Nursing program. The WHNP curriculum prepares nurses for leadership roles and advanced clinical practice with special attention to women’s health issues from pre-conception through post-menopausal care.
Nurse practitioners are especially valuable in medically underserved rural communities – a term that applies to nearly half of Indiana counties – but our state ranks last in the number of nurse practitioners per capita. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Indiana women have some of the nation’s highest rates of cigarette smoking and death by cancer. On the 2007 National Women’s Law Center Report Card, Indiana received an “F” grade for women’s health and was ranked 40th nationwide on such factors as access to health services, prevalence of chronic illness and reproductive health.
Also new in UIndy’s School of Nursing is the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner certificate, the state’s only university-affiliated forensic nursing certificate program. Two graduate courses prepare students for the unique physical, psychological and legal/evidentiary needs of sexual abuse victims. Although Indiana law requires every county to develop a sexual assault response team, most counties do not have nurses trained to provide this care.
Both new offerings build on the foundation of innovative women’s health programs at UIndy, including the state’s only Nurse-Midwifery master’s program. Other specialties in the Master of Science in Nursing program include Family Nurse Practitioner, Gerontological Nurse Practitioner, Nurse Educator, Nursing and Health Systems Leadership and an MSN/MBA dual degree program.
“These programs not only offer rewarding career options for our students, but they also meet urgent healthcare needs in our communities,” said Assistant Professor Barbara Winningham, coordinator of the Nurse-Midwife and WNHP tracks.
More information on graduate nursing programs is available at http://nursing.uindy.edu/msn or (317) 788-2128.
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