Wichita State University will participate in National Nurse Practitioner Week, Nov. 10-16, a celebration of exceptional health care providers.

Nurse Practitioners are licensed, expert clinicians with advanced education at the master and doctorate levels as well as extensive clinical preparation. They provide primary, acute and specialty health care services.

WSU’s School of Nursing graduated 37 family nurse practitioners this summer and nine adult-gerontology acute care nurse practitioners are scheduled to graduate in December.

“These nurse practitioners join the hundreds of WSU’s nurse practitioner graduates already in the workforce helping to manage the health care of individuals, families and communities,” said Alicia Huckstadt, professor and director of Graduate Nursing Programs and a national Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. “WSU is proud of our nurse practitioner faculty, students and alumni of the family nurse practitioner, adult-gerontology acute care nurse practitioner, psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, Master of Science in Nursing and Doctor of Nursing Practice degree programs."

There are more than 171,000 nurse practitioners in the United States that provide a full range of services. Nurse practitioners work as partners with their patients, guiding them to make educated health care decisions and healthy lifestyle choices. More than 916 million patient visits are made to nurse practitioners every year.