Acute Care Nurse Practitioner and Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) Program
The University of Utah College of Nursing introduced the Acute Care Nurse Practitioner and Clinical Nurse Specialist program in 1999 as an effort to meet the changing needs of health care in the intermountain region. Acute Care Nurse Practitioners and Clinical Nurse Specialists play a vital role in caring for the acutely and critically ill in hospitals, nursing facilities, and in the community.
Acute Care Nurse Practitioners and Clinical Nurse Specialists have the opportunity to care for patients in the pre-hospital arena as flight nurse, emergency department, intensive care unit, medical/surgical floor, nursing facilities, and as outpatients in specialty clinics. Our graduates are currently working in multiple areas including, trauma, intensive care units, surgical services, cardiology, pulmonology and oncology. A great advantage to becoming an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner or Clinical Nurse Specialist is the ability to tailors one's clinical training to meet one's career goals.
The program provides in depth coursework in pathophysiology, acute medicine, critical care medicine, pharmacology, diagnostic reasoning, and physical examinations. Lectures are provided by experts in their respective fields. Our faculty, instructors, and clinical preceptors are practicing nurse practitioners and physicians in a variety of fields including trauma surgery, general surgery, orthopedics, internal medicine, palliative care, oncology, neurosurgery, cardiology and neuro-critical care. The program director is an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner working in surgery and trauma in a level 1 trauma center.
We offer a Doctor of Nurse Practice degree in Acute Care to certify as either an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner or a Clinical Nurse Specialist.
We also offer a Post-Masters Certificate for those who are already certified nurse practitioners but would like to become certified as Acute Care Nurse Practitioner.
Program Contact:
Program Director: Blaine A. Winters, MS, ACNP
Preferred Contact - Email: blaine.winters@nurs.utah.edu
Office Phone: 801-712-9297
