Adelphi Adds Three Programs For High-Needs Healthcare Areas

Adelphi’s College of Nursing and Public Health has announced three new programs approved for the Spring 2018 semester—all designed to prepare graduates for high-needs areas in healthcare.

The programs are: the M.S. in Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMH-NP), a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Post-Master’s Certificate and the Doctorate in Nursing Practice (D.N.P.).

The M.S. in Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program is geared to educate nurses prepared at the baccalaureate level as advanced practice nurses to provide primary psychiatric and mental healthcare across the lifespan—from child and adolescence through geriatric.

Students will work directly with clients experiencing psychiatric problems through required clinical practice and also take core courses in pathophysiology, advanced physical assessment and pharmacology.

Jane White, Ph.D. , associate dean of the College, said, “With the current substance use disorder problem and its national focus and funding for prevention and treatment, even more individuals will need treatment”— beyond the already significant number with other mental health problems. The problem is exacerbated by a declining number of psychiatrists who treat such disorders, especially by prescribing appropriate medications. “Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners are prepared to assess and treat these patients with counseling and medication and can fill in this gap of needed practitioners,” Dr. White pointed out.

However, in New York state alone, she noted, there are now only 1,200 licensed Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners. Students in the M.S. and post-M.S. programs will be prepared to assess, plan and manage clients and families with psychiatric diagnoses, as well as provide psychopharmacology, counseling and therapy interventions, Dr. White added.

Here too, Adelphi’s Adult Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner D.N.P. program will help fill a shortage since, as Dr. White observed, “There is currently in New York a need for more primary care providers. Fewer physicians are choosing primary care as a specialty or career track.”

D.N.P. students will hone their skills in the Nexus Building’s clinical simulation laboratories boasting the latest education technology.