History

The Nurse Practitioner role evolved in response to a nationwide shortage of health care services in the mid 1960's. The first Nurse Practitioner program was developed based on the nursing model with an advanced Master's based curriculum. The University of Colorado's School of Nursing was the pioneer program. Soon after the program spread across the major Universities of the nation.

In the year 2000 Nurse Practitioners were granted legal access to practice in all 50 states. We continue to evolve and past the year 2015 all Nurse Practitioners in current study will be required to obtain a Doctor of Nursing Practice. 

There are currently about 600 Nurse Practitioners in the state of Wyoming.