Celebrating Nurse Practitioner Week in an area desperately needing rural care

Medical professionals around the nation are honoring the work of nurse practitioners this week, from November 11 through the 17.

Nurse practitioners aren’t quite nurses or doctors. They find themselves in between the two.

“People think of nurse practitioners, well you’re nurses. Well, we are, but we do have an advanced education,” Melody Weaver explained.

Weaver, a nurse practitioner for over 35-years, is now an assistant professor at Idaho State University’s College of Nursing. Looking back, Weaver believes peoples awareness of nurse practitioners have changed.

“I think now, more than ever, we’re more visible. But it’s taken years and a lot of work on our part to be able to make that happen,” Weaver said.

The focus of the students in the nurse practitioner program is primary care, with an emphasis on rural areas.

“There are some counties, there are 44 counties in Idaho, and there are some counties that don’t have any kind of health care provider,” Weaver said. “And so you have to imagine, how far do those people have to drive?”

Looking for ways to become part of the solution and addressing the shortage of primary care physicians nationwide are part of what drive the students, many just months away from graduating.

Scott Barlow is among them. He always had an interest in medicine but decided to take the nurse practitioner route after evaluating his options.

“I felt that going into the nurse practitioner program…gave me the most breadth with my career options,” Barlow said.

Growing up in Pocatello, Barlow aspired to work rurally and help the communities of Idaho. Now he’s just months away from doing so.

Another student, Christina Ahearn, grew up in rural Montana, where the nearest big hospital was 90-miles away.

A traumatic accident involving a friend caused Ahearn to spend a lot of time in the hospital, an experience she now views as a big influence on her career path.

Now the students are looking forward, anxiously awaiting graduation and all that is yet to come.