Nebraska nurse practitioners will celebrate their profession during National Nurse Practitioner Week Nov. 9-15. The week is set aside to recognize the health professionals for their contributions to health care and the difference they make in patients’ lives.
Nurse practitioners are licensed, expert clinicians with advanced education (most have master’s and many have doctorate degrees) and extensive clinical preparation who provide primary, acute and specialty health care services.
Scottsbluff Family Nurse Practitioner Alice Fillingham always knew she wanted to give back to the community where she was raised. So it was no surprise when she graduated from the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing and became certified, that she assumed a position with the Regional West Medical Center in Scottsbluff.
Fillingham enjoys helping others reach improved patient outcomes to live healthier lives.
On the other side of the state in Omaha, UNMC College of Nursing Assistant Professor and Family Nurse Practitioner Kelly Gonzales, Ph.D., said what she does on a daily basis for the Carter Lake, Iowa, community feeds her desire to help others. She grew up in Iowa and is now teaching nursing students at UNMC and working in Carter Lake.
Dr. Gonzales said many patients seen at the Carter Lake Elementary school-based clinic may not have access to health care if it weren’t for the clinic. Many of the clinic’s patients have financial and transportation barriers.
She said she feels good about being able to provide for the underserved.
Linda Sather, Ed.D., assistant professor and interim director of the Morehead Center for Nursing Practice at the UNMC College of Nursing in Omaha, said nurse practitioners work as primary care providers with patients and guide them to make educated health care decisions and healthy lifestyle choices.
Nurse practitioners are important in addressing the shortage of primary care health professionals in Nebraska, Dr. Sather said.
One-on-one patient interaction is what Fillingham and Gonzales say make their job the best.
“We have the best of both worlds,” Fillingham said. “We get to be with the patient – at the bedside – to have those interactions that are part of being a nurse.” And, she said, as a nurse practitioner, she is qualified to order laboratory tests, procedures and other diagnostic tests and prescribe medications, among other responsibilities.
“Sometimes people call us super nurses,” she said. “We are nurses who have an expanded role.”
The UNMC College of Nursing, which launched Nebraska’s first master’s degree nurse practitioner program, currently has 253 nurse practitioner students enrolled in its master’s program.
Through world-class research and patient care, UNMC generates breakthroughs that make life better for people throughout Nebraska and beyond. Its education programs train more health professionals than any other institution in the state. Learn more at unmc.edu.
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