3/28/17

The University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON) is expanding its Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) program, ranked fifth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, to the Universities at Shady Grove (USG) starting fall 2017. The DNP program is widely considered the highest practice degree in nursing.

The intensive primary care program, which consists of both classroom and field work with health care professionals, covers "the entire life cycle from patients who are a few days old to the elderly." The UMSON FNP specialty graduates 20 students per year. The USG program will start will with 10 students when it launches and the following year's incoming class will likely double.

The DNP-FNP is 80 credit hours and 1,080 hours of practicum/clinical instruction.  The curriculum offered at the USG campus will be the same as that offered at UMSON, which is accredited through the Collegiate Commission on Nursing Education (CCNE). The full-time program of study requires three calendar years of study. A four-year and five-year plan of study are also available.

Bridgitte Gourley, DNP'08, FNP-BC, assistant professor and specialty director, has led the FNP specialty at UMSON's Baltimore campus since 2009, and she will assume the same role at USG. The School of Nursing was awarded a five-year, $1.6 million Nurse Support II grant from the state to launch a new undertaking in Montgomery County.

About 20% of the students at UMSON's FNP specialty come from the Rockville area, so Rebecca Wiseman, PhD '93, RN, associate professor and chair of UMSON's program at USG, says the new program should gain traction right away. She also says recent market research analysis concluded that a nurse practitioner program was needed in the region.

Excerpts from "A Growing Family" by Steve Ginsburg in Nursing Forum