Nurse Practitioners Providing Healthcare for the Uninsured and Homeless

Care is a collaborative project between the Nursing Department at the University and the Kitchen Medical Clinic. It is a free clinic for the uninsured and homeless that is run by the nurse practitioner faculty at the University. Nurse practitioner students provide primary care to adult patients that have no means of payment or healthcare. This collaboration is made possible by funding from the state Foundation for Health. The goals of the clinic include:

• Increase primary care access to the underserved.
• Enhance education of FNP students to include healthcare of the underserved and healthcare disparities
• Increase the number of clinical sites for the FNP educational program through development of Care
• Attract practicing nurse practitioners to the faculty role

Care has been providing for the city's underserved area for the last year. In addition to providing care to those needing healthcare, nurse practitioner students are learning how to care for health disparities and are exposed to the challenging situations that arise from caring for patients with little to no resources and complex medical and psychiatric problems.