The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program at UTRGV, which took 13 years of planning, has begun this semester with a cohort of 14 students.
The DNP program is aimed at current nursing professionals who hold a Master of Science in Nursing and registered nurse license in their state of practice.
The new program prepares nurses for leadership roles in improving health-care systems, not only locally, but also at the state and national levels.
“The DNP is prepared to look at [a problem], evaluate it and then look for ways that we can really improve it,” said Lilia Fuentes, interim dean for the School of Nursing and liaison to the provost. “How can we remedy this problem? When they create those plans, they’re bringing in [a team of experts] to come in and solve that issue.”
Fuentes said work on the proposal for the DNP program began in 2018 and was approved in 2021.
“However, the initial inquiry and plans began back in 2008 when we were UTPA,” she said.
The DNP program is a 45-hour curriculum that offers most courses online via Zoom.
“It is online, and we only require them to come mandatory in the beginning of the year for orientation and then at the very end of their education,” said DNP Program Coordinator Andrya Rivera-Burciaga.
Asked how she felt since starting the program, family nurse practitioner Doris Padilla replied, “It’s a whole new concept to us. It’s reading about what research is currently available and how we can implement that in practice.”
Fellow student and family nurse practitioner Judith Perez said it is a new concept and is basically enhancing what they were previously taught.
“[In] early bachelor’s degree, critical thinking was very important and I think now with the DNP … those skills are definitely getting honed,” Perez said.
She hopes to use this opportunity to better her academic understanding and use what she learns in her current practice.
“I think as the leaders in our profession, we owe it to ourselves and to our community, you know, to educate ourselves to the best of our ability so we can be of service.”
With the program focusing on leadership, the students will obtain the skills for a system-level approach to health care.
“Instead of focusing on one patient, they’re working and taking care of populations,” Rivera-Burciaga said. “Instead of working on some changes, some quality improvements … they’re looking at higher-system-level changes, really some leadership opportunities.”
Padilla and Perez both considered getting their doctorate but were discouraged by the thought of having to go to Houston to study.
“We were excited. … This made quite a difference for us,” Perez said about the doctoral program being offered in the Valley.
Since the program was announced, there has been an increase in local nurse practitioners and advanced nurses who are interested in earning a doctorate, Rivera-Burciaga said.
She said the program is an “amazing” opportunity for Hispanic nurses in the Valley who want to continue their education close to home.
“We need more doctorate-prepared nurses because the RGV … our population does not have a lot of insurance,” Fuentes said. “We lack a lot of access to health care. We really need that doctorate-prepared nurse to really look at those issues, concerns or lack of health-care access and see how we could remedy that.”
Rivera-Burciaga encourages those with a Master’s of Science in Nursing to get a DNP.
“It’s a game-changer, professionally, personally, and then also to really represent your community on different platforms because nobody knows your community better than you do,” she said.
