An Innovative APN student clinical experience : A Memory Clinic Pilot Program

In an effort to provide unique clinical experiences to our APN students and support our collaboration with our area medical centers, the faculty at the University School of Nursing developed a pilot clinical experience in conjunction with the Meridian Health Care system department of neurophysiology. The Meridian system were considering the start up of a Memory clinic to support the members of the community with memory disorders as a result of stroke, head trauma and dementia etc. The screenings were being conducted by neurophysiology without a comprehensive  history and physical, a missing vital portion of the evaluation of the patient with memory disorder. The  University APN faculty and neurophysiologist submitted a proposal to the Meridian administration to pilot a memory clinic using  senior APN students to perform history and physical assessments and medication reconciliations ,a significant contributing factor to alterations in cognition. The proposal was accepted and our first APN student is performing these evaluations. The Meridian system has initiated efforts to develop a clinic with APNs as the primary care provider responsible for screening and  assessing this vulnerable patient population in conjunction with the neurophysiology department..

This collaboration supports the importance of providing diverse innovative clinical experiences to our APN students and fosters  interprofessional collaboration between nursing, other disciplines and our medical center partners. This pilot provides comprehensive assessment for the patient with memory impairment by the APN student who is a integral member of this unique care pilot program in an effort to improve patient outcomes.