UIndy nursing program partners with IU
Starting next fall, the University of Indianapolis will offer a master’s degree in neonatal nursing.
Dean of the School of Nursing and Associate Professor Anne Thomas is excited to have this new program become a part of the curriculum. The new degree program will involve a partnership with Riley Hospital for Children and the Indiana University School of Nursing to provide courses for the new degree.
“We were approached by Riley [Hospital for Children] because of the need for neonatal practitioners in the area and the lack of a school in Indiana to educate them,” Thomas said. “They came to us and asked if we would like to collaborate with them.”
Every neonatal nurse practitioner is required to complete a Bachelor and Master’s of Science in nursing. The practitioner also must be a registered nurse and must also have certification in neonatal resuscitation or in neonatal intensive care nursing according to neonatal-nurse.net.
Neonatal nursing is the care of infants from birth to a span of 30 days and the new program will help complete infant care degrees in the UIndy School of Nursing.
“We are really pleased because we also have nurse midwifery and a women’s health practitioner program [so] it really does a spectrum of [care of] mothers to babies,” said Assistant Professor and Director of the Nurse Midwifery Program Barbara Winningham. “One of the really nice things is that this will be really complementary for the women’s health [program] and the nurse midwifery [programs] because they will be able to share some of their experience with the NNPs and we didn’t have access to that before.”
The partnership with Riley Hospital for Children will benefit the practicing nurses by providing hands-on training at the hospital where most of the classes will be taken.
“It gives students who will be in the neonatal nurse practitioner program another option to specialize as an advanced practice nurse with some extremely good hands-on clinical experiences at Riley Hospital [for Children which is] world renowned for their nurses and medical staff and their care for children,” Thomas said.
All applicants with a bachelor’s degree in nursing can apply for the new program. The nurses need to have experience in the neonatal field.
“I am currently working in the neonatal unit,” said applicant for the neonatal program and alumna Altin Wood. “And I want to further my education as a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner by taking classes at both the University of Indianapolis and Riley [Hospital for Children].”
The IU School of Nursing housed the school of neonatal program for 20 years, but now the courses will transfer to UIndy.
“I always wanted to be a nurse practitioner,” said Wood. “And I am grateful that UIndy has started this new program, which makes it possible for me to do what I always wanted.”
