The Nurse Practitioner in Urology

This new edition updates the previous one and adds additional content related to postoperative management, pain management, LGBTQ care,  and uroradiology. This book is designed to meet the needs of nurse practitioners, advanced practice nurses globally and physician assistants working in urology. Content assumes some background knowledge regarding the normal anatomy and physiology of the genitourinary system and the pathophysiology underlying specific urologic health-related problems. This ensures that the provider can pursue exemplary management of patients with acute and chronic urologic conditions in a wide variety of settings, including independent practices, and academic urologic practices. 

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.

Susanne A. Quallich has been working as a nurse practitioner since 1996, and has worked the Andrology Nurse Practitioner at University of Michigan since 2002. She is one of less than 200 Nurse Practitioners in the country with a specialty certification in Urology (CUNP). She has focused on raising awareness of men's sexual and reproductive health needs, and has been engaged in clinically-based research that quickly translates to improvements in their care. Her unique clinical focus in the areas of male sexual and reproductive health have made her a thought leader and expert among her peers in these areas, and she has published a variety of book chapters and journal articles on these topics. Dr. Quallich was inducted as a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners due to her work in both NP education and promotion of the specialty NP role in Urology; she was awarded the Sigma Theta Tau Rho Chapter 2018 Award for Clinical Excellence.

Michelle Lajiness (Shelly) has been Masters Prepared since 1992 and has been working as a NP in Urology since 2000.  She is currently working full time at the University of Toledo and pursing her DNP. She is recognized as a speaker at both the national and local levels. She has authored many articles and chapters and has an interest in UTI's, asymptomatic bacteria, and helping to define the role of the NP in urology.