On Friday June 3, Universidad Europea Vice Dean of Nursing Ana Giménez Maroto participated in the 2nd National Surgical Nursing Conference organized by the Spanish Society of Surgical Nursing (SEECir). Specifically, she took part in the round table entitled “The Future of Nursing,” at which she spoke about the relationship between specialized nurses in the National Health System and nurse practitioners.
The round table was moderated by José Antonio Jerez Morales, a nurse practitioner in the surgical department of Hospital de Bellvitge and professor at the Universidad de Barcelona School Center for Training in Nursing, and also included Miriam del Barrio Linares, an intensive care nurse at the Navarre University Clinic.
The approach outlined by the vice dean stressed the possibility of becoming a nurse practitioner through specialization and through a master's degree, and she underlined how “specialization is inherent to the nature of advanced practice.” Miriam del Barrio's speech focused on describing the profile of the Clinical Nurse Specialist, which is considered to be a nurse practitioner in the U.S., and on how it differs from the profile of unit supervisor.
The two positions were complementary and the two speakers agreed on the need to have specific job positions for these profiles, and to standardize these figures in Spain.