Anne Neuville recently earned her Doctor Nurse Practitioner degree from the URI College of Nursing after four and one-half years— while working full time as a Nurse Practitioner. “URI grabs you and you can’t get away,” she said.
Anne was originally from Queens and her dad was a Comparative Literature teacher in Maine. URI was geographically half way to from both destinations and therefore a logical choice for college. What kept bringing her back was “the quality of the education.” She says, “The College of Nursing has a reputation for excellence that is well deserved and she is very proud to be a graduate.”
Anne originally enrolled in the College of Pharmacy because she was good in chemistry and science. After two years, she decided that she preferred the medical aspects of Pharmacy and considered Pre-Med before deciding on nursing because she wanted contact with patients. She earned her BS in 1988, her APRN in 1998 and her DNP in 2016. Despite her recent graduation Anne is still tied to URI because she currently works as a per-course instructor for the CON teaching a lab in physical assessment. She feels that it is critically important for older nurses to train the next generation of nurses and “imprint their wealth of knowledge and pearls of wisdom” gained from years of experience in the field.
Anne practices in Tiverton at the Family Physicians of Tiverton and Little Compton which is part of Newport Hospital and ultimately the Lifespan Group. Their clinic is located at 1800 Main Road, Tiverton. She is board certified by the American Nurses Credentialing Center as a family nurse practitioner. Their approach to medicine is “to treat the whole person which includes spiritual and emotional problems as well as physical”. She finds that her many years of being a nurse helps in treating patients holistically. That experience also helps in gaining the trust of the patient and his/her family because she sees the whole person not just the illness.
She finds that being a Nurse Practitioner is however very different from being a nurse because she now acts much more as a physician by diagnosing, prescribing treatment and ordering prescriptions. As a Nurse Practitioner, her emphasis is to also “treat the entire family as well as a particular patient by promoting a healthy life style”. This falls in line with the current direction of medical care under the Affordable Health Care Act where there is now an emphasis is prevention rather than just treatment.
While working as a Nurse Practitioner, Anne for several years chaired the Government Affairs Committee of the Rhode Island Nurses Association. This experience led to one of areas of study for her doctorate: Advancing the Nurse Practitioner Role as a Primary Care Provider. The goal of the committee and Association has been to change the laws dealing with Health Care and Insurance Companies in Rhode Island: particularly credentialing of Nurse Practitioners in Primary care. They hope to allow Nurse Practitioners to practice up to their fullest capabilities. It has taken a lot of work with the Rhode Island Legislature, but Insurance Companies are finally recognizing the part Nurse Practitioners are playing in a rapidly changing medical environment where prevention is the key to lowering health costs.