Jane McClain starts a new job next week as a family nurse practitioner, one of a dozen nurses who will graduate from Southeast Missouri State University's new program.

McClain will go to work as a family nurse practitioner with Dr. Jan Seabaugh, an ear, nose and throat specialist in Cape Girardeau.

"Due to physician shortages and rising health care costs, it is really a field to go into," McClain said. "It is going to be a really exciting field."

McClain and 11 other students are the first to complete the Department of Nursing's family nurse practitioner tract of the Master of Science Degree in Nursing.

"This is an important milestone," said Dr. A. Louise Hart, chairman of Southeast's Department of Nursing.

Following commencement, students are required to take and pass a national certification exam.

After that, the nurse practitioners will disperse to rural health clinics in Doniphan, Farmington and Southern Illinois. They will also join specialists' offices in dermatology and ear, nose and throat practices. One student plans to do medical missionary work overseas.

Bringing additional primary health care to the region was the goal of the nurse practitioner program, Hart said, a goal the department has worked toward since 1994.

The program got a boost in 1996, when it received a $717,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The money allowed the university to purchase expensive, high-tech equipment for students. For example, the program has a series of interactive computer programs to help students learn a variety of skills.

Nurse practitioners Cathy Young and Bobbi Morris lead the program. They developed the curriculum and established the clinical training the student nurses must complete. Standards for Southeast's program exceed national standards.

Unlike many programs to train nurse practitioners, Southeast isn't a medical center. Young and Morris looked for ways to give students practical experience while remaining in a teaching environment. They found the answer in their own campus building.

On the first floor of Crisp Hall, the university operates the Center for Health and Counseling, a student health clinic. The clinic was looking for health practitioners. It seemed a perfect match.

Family nurse practitioners work in collaboration with physicians. A similar collaboration has been established with local doctors and the university.

Family nurse practitioners can do 85 to 95 percent of what primary care physicians do, Young explained. For example,

nurse practitioners can prescribe some medications, like antibiotics for a case of strep throat. If an illness is outside the scope of the nurse practitioners, they refer students to local physicians. Usually, students get an appointment within 24 hours.

Students have nearly immediate access to care. Student nurses get hands-on training.

And the clinic has seen changes in student health statistics since student nurse practitioners have been on staff. The pregnancy rate has dropped by half. The sexually transmitted disease rate ranges between .5 and 1 percent. The state university average ranges from 3 to 5 percent.

In addition to working in the student health clinic, student nurse practitioners also complete training in regional medical offices and clinics.

"We are training health professionals who will be staying in this region to practice," Hart said. "That has been our goal all along, to put additional primary care professionals into medically under served areas."

The program enrolls students from Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois almost exclusively. Most are practicing nurses who have been working anywhere from five to 25 years. Classes are held in the evenings and on varying schedules to accommodate students who also hold down full-time jobs.

McClain said the program offered her a chance to advance her career that she might not have had otherwise.

"I think it's a very good program," she said. "It provides a wonderful opportunity for nurses in this area who otherwise used to have to travel to St. Louis or Memphis."

The 12 new family nurse practitioners will be hooded during a department of nursing ceremony at 9 a.m. May 15 in Rose Theater. The ceremony precedes Southeast commencement exercises scheduled for 2 p.m. in the Show Me Center.