NYU Students Get Rural Health Experience At Bassett
A one-week rotation at Bassett Medical Center proved so valuable to students from New York University’s (NYU) College of Nursing last year that the experience has been extended to a two-week rotation in 2011. The group consists of five adult nurse practitioner students and one nurse midwifery student. They arrived on the Cooperstown campus January 10 and will stay through January 21.
Associate Dean for Graduate Programs at NYU’s College of Nursing, Judith Haber, Ph.D., A.P.R.N., B.C., F.A.A.N., noted the timeliness of the program given the transformational change in health care delivery and expanded access to primary care. Haber said, “I am thrilled that our nurse practitioner and nurse-midwifery students have a unique opportunity to partner with health professionals at a foremost rural health system. This experience will give our future NYU College of Nursing nurse practitioner and nurse midwifery providers valuable exposure to the depth and breadth of primary care need and opportunity in rural areas of New York State.” Furthermore, it’s Haber’s hope that the partnership with Bassett will have a positive impact on the national shortage of primary care providers in rural areas. “With this exciting exposure, it is our hope that some of our students will choose to work in rural health systems, such as Bassett, after they graduate,” Haber concluded.
The NYU students graduate in May and will enter the field as primary providers of care for adult men and women. Some of the students are from the New York City area, but also California and Sweden. While in Cooperstown, they will have the opportunity to rotate through a variety of specialty services at Bassett Medical Center including cardiology, cardiac surgery and pulmonology. Some will also rotate through Bassett’s regional health centers. The midwifery student will spend time working in the Bassett Birthing Center.
Bassett’s Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President of Patient Care Services Connie A Jastremski, R.N., M.S., M.B.A., said, "The opportunity for the NYU nurse practitioner students to come to Bassett is incredibly beneficial to the students as well as to our nurse practitioners who are precepting these students. This is the second year that we have had the opportunity to invite the NYU students to spend time in our primary care sites as well as in some of our specialty programs including bariatric surgery, cancer treatment and Women's Health. It affords the NYU students a chance to see what practice in a rural health setting is like and allows the preceptors to share their extraordinary expertise with these students.”
The program coordinator of the Nurse Midwifery Program at NYU, Julia Lange Kessler, M.S., C.M., B.S., R.N., I.B.C.L.C., noted, “The upstate rural health experience allows our students to explore the delivery of health care from a community-based system. That’s an important perspective to have because health care needs are community specific and, in that context, unique to those environments and social structures. Kessler pointed out that Basssett has established an award winning midwifery service, one of the longest standing in the country. “The midwives at Bassett exemplify clinical excellence; they are exceptional role models and mentors for student midwives. The NYU College of Nursing welcomes and looks forward to continuing opportunities with Bassett Medical Center.”
