[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 18461]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              ADVANCED PRACTICE REGISTERED NURSE PROGRAMS

  Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, today I rise to recognize the need to 
transition the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse--APRN--programs at 
the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences--USUHS--to the 
Doctorate of Nursing Practice. It was my hope to establish a program to 
educate advanced practice nurses at USUHS and in 1993 Congress founded 
the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Graduate 
School of Nursing, GSN. Doctoral nursing programs are designed to 
prepare advanced practice nurses and Ph.D.s for the unique challenges 
of military health care. The GSN students explore the fields of nursing 
through a signature blend of science, research, and field training. The 
lessons learned on the USU campus and beyond the traditional classroom 
prepare the GSN graduates to take on a diverse range of challenges that 
have led to their success in any environment.
  The American Association of Colleges of Nursing--AACN--Position 
Statement on the Doctorate of Nursing Practice, DNP, dated October 
2004, identified 13 advanced practice degree recommendations in 
response to the increasing complexity of healthcare and rising patient 
acuities. In recommendation 10 of its position statement, the AACN 
stated, ``the practice doctorate be the graduate degree for advanced 
nursing practice preparation including, but not limited, to the four 
current APRN roles: clinical nurse specialist, nurse anesthetist, nurse 
midwife and nurse practitioner.'' Additionally, the American 
Association of Colleges of Nursing and the American Association of 
Nurse Anesthetists, Council on Accreditation have stated that APRN 
programs should be converted from the master's degree to Doctorate of 
Nursing Practice programs by 2015 and 2025, respectively. These 
endorsements were preceded by almost 4 years of research and consensus-
building by an AACN task force charged with examining the need for the 
practice doctorate with a variety of stakeholder groups. Of the 388 
APRN programs in the country, 72 percent are offering or planning DNP 
programs. To maintain professional standards for military APRNs and 
remain competitive for high quality students, the Graduate School of 
Nursing at USUHS must transition to the DNP for its APRN programs. A 
report is requested from USUHS, within 180 days, outlining the GSN's 
progress toward DNP program transition and planned implementation.

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