Nurse Practitioner
It is well understood there is an acute shortage of primary health care doctors in India and several legislations and incentives for doctors to work in rural areas have failed considerably. The Human Capacity vertical at ICTPH is actively conducting research on alternate health care personnel to man primary health care centres across the country. There are different models for alternative human resources for health which can manage primary health kiosks like Registered Medical Practitioners (Licentiate Medical Practitioners), Nursing Practitioners, Pharmacy Practitioners etc. The Nurse Practitioner model has been successfully implemented in several countries in the developed as well the developing world and ICTPH is working on creating a framework for the introduction of a similar concept in India along with the University of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing.

The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing is the only Ivy League institution to offer Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degrees in nursing. The mission of the School, as part of a major research university, is to develop, disseminate, and utilize nursing knowledge through research, education, and clinical practice. Research guides education and shapes practice that emphasizes identification of, response to, and leadership for the healthcare needs of a multicultural world. The School of Nursing is one of 12 Schools at the University of Pennsylvania; a nationally-ranked research university founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1740. An agreement was signed between the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and ICTPH in January 2009 where the Penn Nursing faculty will collaborate with the ICTPH team to develop Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) education in India, enhance census survey data analysis, and work on other areas of research. An in-depth research is underway to create a health workforce tailored to the needs of India and the findings of the same will be presented to a larger forum for deliberations by this year end

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