
By the Numbers
It was 1970 when UVA’s Department of Pediatrics established Virginia’s first nurse practitioner program (a pediatric NP).
By 1976, that program was joined by three more—an adult and family NP, both created in UVA’s Department of Medicine, and an emergency NP (the first of its kind in the country), established in the UVA Department of Emergency Medicine—and were transferred to and further developed by the School of Nursing.
Nurse practitioners ushered in a new era of nursing, one marked by specialization, an expanded scope of practice, and growing autonomy. Today, there are more than 300,000 NPs across the United States, and more than 14,000 in Virginia who diagnose, prescribe, and treat growing numbers of patients seeking extraordinary and holistic care. A look at the evolution of UVA’s NP programs across their 50 years.
Learn more about NPs' history from our Bjoring Center archives:
- Flashback Friday: When NPs were new
- Flashback Friday: Nursing hearts, the growing specialty of cardiac nursing
- Flashback Friday: The painful past of RN anesthetists
- The NP at 50 (VNL, fall 2021)