{"id":67807,"date":"2007-02-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-02-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/university-graduates-first-gerontological-nurse-practitioner\/"},"modified":"2007-02-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-02-08T00:00:00","slug":"university-graduates-first-gerontological-nurse-practitioner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2007\/02\/university-graduates-first-gerontological-nurse-practitioner\/","title":{"rendered":"University graduates first gerontological nurse practitioner"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tEast Greenwich resident completes master\u2019s degree<\/p>\n


\n\tKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 February 8, 2007 \u2013 During two-plus decades as a nurse, Donna Rondeau-Marzullo was learning on the job.<\/p>\n


\n\tBut when the 溏心vlog免费B站 introduced a new master\u2019s program to prepare nurses as gerontological nurse practitioners, she jumped right in.<\/p>\n


\n\tLast December, the East Greenwich resident became the first graduate of the 42-credit program.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe wife and mother of three teen-agers and full-time nurse at Roger Williams Medical Center said the two-and-half-year commitment was worth it. \u201cIt was my time to pursue this,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted to become a nurse practitioner because I believed I could do a better job for the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThe University\u2019s College of Nursing was awarded a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and launched the program in the fall of 2005. The timing could not have been better for Rondeau-Marzullo, who earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in nursing from 溏心vlog免费B站 in 1983.<\/p>\n


\n\tShe was already enrolled in 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s family nurse practitioner program when the new program was announced.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI call this serendipity because it is just what I wanted,\u201d said the former Pawtucket resident who graduated from Tolman High School. \u201cI was just starting my clinical rotations when the new program started.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tA nurse educator at Roger Williams while completing her degree requirements, she said the master\u2019s degree would help her move beyond hospital work into long-term care.<\/p>\n


\n\tShe said she pursued the gerontological nursing master\u2019s degree because her parents faced serious long-term care issues before they died.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cOlder people are not a priority in this state or country, but the elderly are a great group of people. They have unique needs, and many have a list of medications and conditions a mile long.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tWhether Rhode Island likes it or not, older adults are going to become a priority. The state ranks sixth nationwide for the percentage of adults over 65 and fourth nationally for the percentage of individuals 80 and older. Until Rondeau-Marzullo earned her degree, there were just 10 gerontological nurse practitioners licensed in the state.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cNurse practitioners have a positive impact on health care overall because they provide a comprehensive level of care that focuses on each individual,\u201d said, Denise Coppa, 溏心vlog免费B站 associate professor of nursing and director of the nurse practitioner program.<\/p>\n


\n\tAssociate Nursing Dean Paula Viau said nurse practitioners provide care at the bedside and they educate. \u201cThe nurse practitioners and nurses are the ones who ensure continuity of care in long-term scenarios because the physicians and pharmacists aren\u2019t always available. The nurse practitioner helps prevent admissions to the hospital from an extended care facility.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tStudents in the program at 溏心vlog免费B站 get intensive instruction on geriatric assessment, diagnosis and pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment of acute and chronic health problems experienced by older adults. They also add to their nursing knowledge of nutrition, functional status, spirituality, sexuality, skin and wound care, mobility and cognitive functioning.<\/p>\n


\n\t \u201cIt\u2019s amazing, the breadth of this program,\u201d Rondeau-Marzullo said. \u201cWhen I went through this, I often said to myself, \u201cI wish I knew that way back when.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nShe said the program and faculty are outstanding. \u201cI leave the program with a much better understanding of theory and practice, as well as clinical science.

\nThis is a difficult program and you have to do a lot on your own,\u201d she added.

\nLorraine Schwartz, the lead faculty member of the program, said she is proud of Rondeau-Marzullo. \u201cShe is mature and self-motivated, and she worked very hard. She showed great determination, and studied on nights and weekends.\u201d <\/p>\n


\nPictured above

\nPROUD FACULTY: 溏心vlog免费B站 College of Nursing faculty, standing, pose with Donna Rondeau-Marzullo, seated, of East Greenwich. Rondeau-Marzullo is the first graduate of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s nurse practitioner master\u2019s program that focuses on gerontology. Standing from left are Associate Nursing Dean Paula Viau, Lorraine Schwartz, the lead faculty member of the program, and Associate Professor of Nursing Denise Coppa, director of the nurse practitioner program. 溏心vlog免费B站 News Bureau photo by Michael Salerno Photography.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

East Greenwich resident completes master\u2019s degree KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 February 8, 2007 \u2013 During two-plus decades as a nurse, Donna Rondeau-Marzullo was learning on the job. But when the 溏心vlog免费B站 introduced a new master\u2019s program to prepare nurses as gerontological nurse practitioners, she jumped right in. Last December, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67809,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}