Becker's Healthcare September 12, 2024
Pitfalls of nurse practitioner education made national headlines in July after a Bloomberg Businessweek article criticized programs for allegedly accepting students and graduating them without proper training or experience.
More than 600 NP programs have sprouted up across the country offering advanced nursing degrees — three times more than the number of medical schools. In total, 39,000 NPs graduated from programs in 2022, a 50% increase from 2017, according to the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. NP training programs are not standardized, and many students complete coursework entirely online, according to the report.
“There are programs graduating nurse practitioners with no experience, and that’s incredibly challenging for them, for the hospitals and for the clinics they go into,” Donna...