Preparing acute care nurse practitioners at the University of Connecticut.

To meet the pressing demands for enhanced quality of patient care in a time of shrinking resources, a cooperative effort between the School of Nursing and the University Hospital (John Dempsey) Department of Nursing was initiated to educate nurses for a new role. Acute care nurse practitioners are master's prepared nurses in advanced practice who are capable of case management. Major functions include creating an initial data base, ordering diagnostic tests, therapeutics interventions, and medications, and monitoring their results in collaboration with attending physicians. Results show promise for unprecedented interdisciplinary patient management and nurse-to-nurse cooperation.