The Child Heath Associate Physician Assistant Program — An Enduring Educational Model Addressing the Needs Of Families and Children

Abstract

In contrast to what one might expect, this quote does not come from a recent medical journal. Forty years ago it provided a context for the development of three unique programs designed to address health care disparities and a predicted pediatric workforce shortfall. Henry K. Silver, MD, professor and vice-chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (UCHSC) addressed the needs of the country’s children by creating an innovative model for health care delivery, in part supported by new pediatric health care professionals who could support and complement the skills and training of their pediatrician colleagues. The first nurse practitioner (NP) program in the country was created in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. The Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP) program, launched as a joint venture by Dr. Silver (School of Medicine) and Loretta C. Ford, EdD, RN, PNP (School of Nursing), graduated its first students in 1965. This program, designed to increase the productivity of pediatricians, prepared nurses to assume an expanded role in providing comprehensive health services to children. The PNP was educated to provide almost total care for the well child as well as to manage the problems of the majority of sick and injured children commonly seen in a pediatric practice. The two schools also established a School Nurse Practitioner Program. Most are aware of the long-term impact of these visionary efforts, but few realize that they were also instrumental in the creation of the PA profession. Eugene Stead, MD, in a letter dated November 1, 1981, acknowledged Dr. Silver’s important contributions related to the creation of the NP profession: “Your statement about the chronology is correct. The demonAnita Duhl Glicken, MSW, is professor of pediatrics and interim director of the Child Health Associate/Physician Assistant Program; Gerald Merenstein, MD, is medical director and was director of the CHA/PA program for 12 years; and Mary Arthur, MS, CHA/PA, was a graduate of the second CHA/PA class and a longtime associate director of the CHA/PA program, University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, Denver, Colorado.