The nurse practitioner in urology

This manual fills the gaps that traditional curricula may have left, permitting the reader to proceed with confident management of adult patients with urologic care needs, promoting the role of a skilled clinician in urology, especially for chronic, non-operative urologic conditions while recognizing those conditions which may benefit from surgical management.

As the burden of urologic disease increases with an aging U.S. population, it is increasingly clear that nurse practitioners and physician assistants will be called on to move into roles caring for patients with urologic disease. Use of NPs and PAs to their highest education will become an increasingly important strategy for maintaining access and reducing costs, in the context of urologist workforce that is shrinking. However, urology topics receive sporadic attention in NP and PA curricula, leaving practicing NPs and PAs with gaps in their knowledge concerning trends and recommendations for management of urologic health conditions. As this demand for provider visits for urologic concerns increases, the demand for provider services to care for patients with urologic health concerns will also increase, and presents the opportunity for both NPs and PAs to move into specialty practice environments within urology.