News

June 2011
The Road Traveled to the Doctor of Nursing Practice

In the fall of 2010, the UW-Madison School of Nursing launched its Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program. Sixteen post-master's students—five clinical nurse specialists and eleven nurse practitioners—are enrolled in the first DNP class at the UW–Madison. Meet three students from this inaugural class.

Kathleen Elertson

Kathleen Elertson was an RN for fifteen years before going back to school to get her advanced practice nursing degree, which she completed two-and-a-half years ago, specializing in pediatrics. Soon after, Elertson took a job as the pediatric nurse practitioner/medical liaison with the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare. For the last eighteen months, she has been developing an innovative nursing program for child welfare using nurses to assist in the health and well-being of children served by the child welfare system.

Kathleen ElertsonThe Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare nursing program could become a national prototype. A safety and well-being program, it focuses on children involved with child welfare and uses nurses in two capacities: making home visits to assess infants' and toddlers' health needs and working as consultants with social workers, parents, and foster parents to review a child's health needs and to determine how the diagnosis may affect the child's safety.

In Milwaukee, six nurses provide scheduled home visitations for five hundred children less than three years of age in out-of-home care. Three nurse consultants provide initial health care review and planning for approximately two hundred children referred to child welfare per month.

Although many programs across the country utilize nurses as either consultants or home visitors, Elertson says that it's unusual to use both within the same program. Through the Doctor of Nursing Practice program, she hopes to gain external evaluation and valuable feedback that will either validate the current program structure or demonstrate the need for revision.

"I had a personal goal to attain the DNP to enhance my clinical knowledge and leadership skills," says Elertson. "I also wanted to have the opportunity to engage with some of the brightest minds in nursing academia to tell me if they think we're on the right track.

"The work we're doing is really about meeting the needs of the families we serve. It's something that could be replicated to form a national model. I think the structure is there; people across the country are already watching."

Jennifer Fiegel-Newlon

Growing up in a small Wisconsin town, Jennifer Fiegel-Newlon saw firsthand how rural areas often struggle to provide adequate health care resources for the community. She vowed to do something about it, saying, "I had a passion for rural health care from day one."

Jennifer Fiegel-NewlonToday—a bachelor's and two master's degrees later, and with a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP ) in the works—Fiegel-Newlon is doing something. She works in Wonewoc, Wisconsin, as an advanced practice nurse with a dual specialty in family practice and psychiatry.

The UW–Madison School of Nursing alumna says that when she moved to the Wonewoc area, which is located twenty minutes northwest of Reedsburg, there were quite a few family practice providers in the area, but a paucity of mental health professionals. Consequently, she developed a behavioral health program and kicked it off in April 2009.

She decided to pursue the School of Nursing's DNP to help her stay informed about research and innovations in the field that she can bring back to use in the Wonewoc community.

"Being in a rural area, you are often stuck in a place where research catches up with you after the fact," Fiegel-Newlon says. "I thought the DNP program would help give me cutting-edge research that would bring our program up to speed and give us the means and initiative to start our own research practice for our patients."

Fiegel-Newlon's research focuses on implementing rural health care services for mental health patients. She aims to study what services would be most appropriate in the rural setting and then to implement them for the patients.

"We also face the tremendous challenge of overcoming the stigma of receiving mental health treatment in rural settings," she says. "We are starting to get more patients now, mostly from word of mouth. So, I want to develop a program that's appropriate to the community and won't scare people away who might not otherwise seek mental health services."

Kristine Foth

Kristine Foth knew in elementary school that she wanted to be a nurse. She has never wavered.

Foth is an acute care nurse practitioner at Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. She works in its Trauma Surgery/Critical Care Division, where she sees the direst of circumstances: motor vehicle accidents, gunshot wounds, stabbings, falls, and sports injuries, among others.

Kristine FothPatients are brought to the trauma bay by helicopter or ambulance, says Foth. She assists with resuscitation and will then follow the patients with their day-to-day care in the ICU or on the hospital's general care floor. She also coordinates their discharge and will see the patients when they return for follow-up clinical care.

"I have the opportunity to care for and develop relationships with my patients and their families from the time of initial injury through recovery," she says. "It's rewarding to see how patients progress and heal."

But as a nurse practitioner in an inner-city setting, Foth also sees the disparity in health care access and the continued expansion of an uninsured patient population. "I sympathize with patients and families who face financial burdens, in addition to traumatic injury. I have been challenged in discharging uninsured patients who require follow-up care by a primary care provider for issues such as diabetes, hypertension, and other chronic illnesses, but do not have health insurance."

This, Foth says, has spurred her to act. She donates much of her non-work time to volunteer at one of Milwaukee's free clinics, where, she explains, "we see patients on a consistent basis, administer their medications, and follow them for the long-term." She is also part of a Milwaukee-based project team that is assisting Iraqi refugee families with health care needs.

But Foth believes she can do more.

In the fall of 2010, she enrolled in the school's Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP ) program. She views the DNP as her way of advancing services to those in need.

"I have witnessed inequality both locally and internationally," says Foth, whose travels have included Haiti in response to the cholera outbreak and Africa and the Middle East on medical outreach projects. "With the education and experience that the DNP program provides, I hope to lead practice development and health care systems change. I want to grow as a nurse researcher, enhance my ability to provide evidence-based practice, and serve as an educator."

Foth is poised to take a lead role in the development of the Medical College of Wisconsin's brand-new global health program. "We will be developing health initiatives in collaborative partnership with clinics and providers overseas as well as in our local communities serving the uninsured, poor, and international population," she explains.

"I never imagined doing anything else than being a nurse," says Foth. "Now, the DNP will prepare me as I further my career—to be at the forefront in my practice and community involvement."