The Division of Nursing and its relationship to nurse practitioner education

Nurses provide a large part of health care in the United States. Increasingly, among rural and underserved populations, urban and rural NPs and NMWs are taking the place of physicians who choose to specialize and to practice in metropolitan areas. Nurse practitioners and NMWs are well qualified to provide primary care for those with acute and chronic medical conditions, and to provide maternity care to the 95% of women whose pregnancies are normal and do not require specialist care by obstetricians. Since 1965, the DN, through its grant programs, has contributed to increasing the accessibility of health care in this country by helping to increase the supply of nurses in all specialties and improving the quality of graduates and undergraduates in nursing education. In the past 25 years, NPs and NMWs have proven their capability and worth. Federal support has helped to make these invaluable contributions possible.