CONTACT - Volume 10, Number 1
New MSN Specialization-Adult Acute Care Nurse Practitioner

Claudette Spalding, Ph.D., ARNP, CNAA
Director of MSN Specializations

We have certainly had an exciting spring semester, and our fall semester is off to a roaring start. In the Spring we reinstituted the Adult Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Specialization (AACNP). Following a focus group meeting last September with nearly 25 chief nursing officers from Monroe, Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, the need to meet South Florida's health care needs through the preparation of the AACNP was very apparent.

As we all know, Florida has a culturally diverse and rapidly growing population. Almost 6,000 new residents arrive each day. The large number of elderly, low income persons relocating from other states, and immigrants from less developed countries has further compromised the effects of the nursing shortage. We also have a growing population with HIV/AIDS, influenza, and tuberculosis.

Hospital admissions in Florida have risen 12% in the past four years. By 2010 it is projected that Florida will have 12% fewer nurses than is required to meet the needs of the stat's healthcare system. A recent survey from Florida's Hospital Association found that 55% of the respondents ranked the shortage of adult critical care unit nurses as "severe" and 38% ranked the shortage of emergency department nurses as "severe."

Our goal is to educate and place the AACNP to provide direct and indirect patient care services across illness trajectories. The aging and expanding population of Florida challenges advanced practice nurses to care for those with chronic diseases, HIV/AIDS, and unintentional injuries. There is an urgent need to prepare nurses for the AACNP role and further educate existing Family Nurse Practitioners (FNP) to meet the health care needs of the growing and aging, underserved and culturally diverse populations in Florida.

The AACNP program began in the Spring 2003 and enrollment for Fall 2003 has already increased 52%. Our program is the only AACNP program in the country to include a leadership and teaching component. Graduates of the program will be eligible to take the American Association for Nurse Credentialing (AANC) national certification exam for Acute Care Nurse Practitioner.

In addition to adding the new AACNP specialization we have made some changes in the Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) specialization. In order to better prepare our students for the national certification exam, the FNP specialization has had the 3 credit elective replaced with a 3 credit Women's Health course which also includes a 120 hour clinical component. This change becomes effective Fall 2003.

The two additional MSN Specializations: Administration/Leadership, and Education (preparation for both faculty and/or staff educator positions) remain vital to meeting the educational desires of our students. Also, students who have an MSN in one specialization are returning for a post-masters in a second specialization. We are continually evaluating the Graduate Program's curriculum in order to best prepare our students for their roles as nurse leaders, educators, practitioners, and researchers.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have concerning our MSN specializations at cspalding@mail.barry.edu or 305-899-3849. I welcome your inquiries.