The Columbia University School of Nursing (CUSN, New York, USA) recently signed a agreement de exchange de teaching e research with the School of Nursing of the University of Navarra. For this reason, Jennifer E. Dohrn, assistant professor at CUSN, visited Pamplona with some of her students, who spent a period of training internship at the academic center and in the Clínica Universidad de Navarra.

At CUSN, Professor Dohrn is also the director of its Office of Global Initiatives and part of its World Health Organization (WHO) Center partner , one of 42 WHO collaborating centers worldwide.

The office is dedicated to the promotion of advanced Education in nursing, which is why we took the opportunity to ask Professor Dohrn about her vision of Advanced internship Nursing, a new trend of specialization in nursing that is established in the USA and is starting to spread in Europe.

First of all, what is the Advanced internship Nurse Practitioner?
The Advanced internship Nurse Practitioner (EPA), according to the committee International Nurses, "is a specialist nurse who has acquired the expert knowledge base, complex decision-making skills and clinical competencies necessary for extended professional practice, the characteristics of which are given by the context or country in which the nurse is accredited to practice." A master's degree degree scroll is recommended for practice.

What does your work consist of?
The work of an EPA integrates research, Education, internship and management, a high Degree of professional autonomy and internship independent. It is a central way of meeting the needs of a health system by providing a higher level of nursing care. In this way, it can fill critical gaps in the primary care system and universal health coverage. The nurse acts as a frontline care provider for families and communities, and as a point of entrance to the healthcare system.

How do you think this new role benefits the healthcare system?
Having an EPA team opens doors to expand primary care to a wider issue of people, improving access to care. Also financial aid to build strong healthcare teams, as an EPA can play a larger role within them.

How well established is specialization program in the U.S.?
It is very well developed within the U.S. Nursing professionals practice it at all levels of care: in primary care health centers and in hospitals. In addition, we now have a postgraduate program in Advanced internship Nursing, called 'doctorate at the internship Nursing', which allows the EPA to provide a continuum of care for patients, including the processes from Admissions Office to the hospital. The door is open for empowering nursing and for the improvement of population health outcomes.

The University of Navarra offers a Master's Degree in Advanced internship and management in Nursing, what do you expect from the recent agreement of partnership between your University and the Navarra institution?
This partnership is very important for CUSN: it starts with a period of exchange of students and their learning about different health systems. It also starts with a knowledge of the School of Nursing, to share possible teaching and research programs and advanced training courses.