Photo by Jon Christofersen
Every Johns Hopkins School of Nursing student who took the most recent American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Family Nurse Practitioner and Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner primary care certification exams passed. Hopkins scored 70 points above the national average in the FNP exam and 46 points above the average in the AGNP exam.
On the heels of a new law in Maryland that gives NPs full practice authority, Associate Professor Deborah Finnell, DNS, PMHNP-BC, CARN-AP, FAAN, director of the master’s and DNP programs, says this kind of achievement “will help open doors for them as the nurse practitioner role becomes even more essential to provide access to care and fill provider gaps.”
NPs—registered nurses with master’s or doctoral degrees whose scope of practice ranges from primary to more specialized care—serve as nurse leaders who can provide care autonomously or within an interprofessional setting. In addition to the adult-gerontology primary care and family NP specialties, Hopkins provides tracks in adult-gerontology acute care and pediatric primary care that center on equipping nurses for clinical decision making, health promotion, disease prevention, and assessing, diagnosing, and managing patients in a variety of settings. All of the school’s NP tracks have been ranked in the top 10 specialty programs among accredited nursing school graduate programs by U.S. News & World Report.