Medical College of Wisconsin and UW-Milwaukee Establish Nurse Practitioner Residency Program

Milwaukee, Aug. 27, 2019 – Thanks to a $1.7 million, four-year grant from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine and Medicine will launch a nurse practitioner postgraduate residency program, beginning in January 2020. Funds will allow the Medical College of Wisconsin to partner with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee College of Nursing on the program, which will be targeted specifically toward psychiatry mental health nurse practitioners.

The program will be a structured, supervised year of clinical practice and continuing education at community-based settings to prepare mental health nurses to provide care to underserved populations in the Milwaukee area. The residency will train four nurse practitioners, and offers mentored learning in various clinical rotations, including general psychiatric ambulatory clinics, general inpatient psychiatric unit, child and adolescent psychiatry, embedded psychiatric ambulatory clinics and psychiatry consult liaison service. Elective rotations are also available focused on mental health and HIV, mental health and LGBTQ, student mental health and community partners.

“Shortage of mental health professionals is a crisis, particularly for youth, and more so for low-income families,” said Julie Raaum, DNP, director, Medical College Physicians Office of Advanced Practice at MCW and principal investigator on the grant. “Wisconsin has fewer mental health professionals per capita than most states, and this nurse residency is one of many efforts to increase the numbers of mental health professionals.”

The program builds upon both MCW’s longstanding commitment to address the health needs of the medically underserved in the Milwaukee area, as well as UW-Milwaukee’s long history of training compassionate nurse leaders.

“UWM launched its Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner certificate program in January 2019,” said Kim Litwack, dean at UW-Milwaukee College of Nursing. “This partnership provides additional clinical training, building on our solid educational platform preparing highly educated practitioners immediately prepared to meet the increased need for mental health services of the state.”

Family nurse practitioners are independently licensed advanced practice nurses, whose scope of clinical services includes primary care for adults and children of all ages. This program is for nurse practitioners who have been practicing 18 months or less and are seeking a specialty in psychiatry and mental health.

Students can apply request application details by contacting Medical College of Wisconsin recruiter Gabrielle Pollard at gpollard@mcw.edu.

About the Medical College of Wisconsin

With a history dating back to 1893, The Medical College of Wisconsin is dedicated to leadership and excellence in education, patient care, research and community engagement.  More than 1,200 students are enrolled in MCW’s medical school and graduate school programs in Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Central Wisconsin in 2016. MCW’s School of Pharmacy opened in 2017. A major national research center, MCW is the largest research institution in the Milwaukee metro area and second largest in Wisconsin. In FY2016, faculty received more than $184 million in external support for research, teaching, training and related purposes. This total includes highly competitive research and training awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Annually, MCW faculty direct or collaborate on more than 3,100 research studies, including clinical trials. Additionally, more than 1,500 physicians provide care in virtually every specialty of medicine for more than 525,000 patients annually.

About the UWM College of Nursing

Since 1965, the College of Nursing has developed a tradition of excellence. The College is dedicated to providing academic programs of the highest quality that are at the forefront of nursing and has been widely recognized for its innovation, leadership in the profession of nursing, and extensive collaboration with diverse community agencies. U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks the College in the top 15 percent of nursing schools with graduate programs.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.