As the nursing profession requires more education, masters programs are going by the wayside to be replaced by the doctor of nursing practice – an advanced degree Grand Valley State University added this year, six years ahead of a nationwide goal.
According to excerpts from the story:
Traverse City resident Jonathon Reed said Grand Valley State University’s new doctorate program in nursing practice fits the bill for him. Reed, an Army reservist who spent 10 months serving in the infantry in Iraq, is a member of the first class of students in the program, which began this fall.
“I do a lot of work at home, using the Internet and reading and that sort of thing,” he said. “I participate in online discussions with my classmates. Then we meet roughly about once a month.” The schedule fits a busy life that includes on-call work as a registered nurse at Munson Medical Center, three children ages 2 months, 7 and 9, and wife, Rebecca, a physical therapist. Reed attended the two-year nursing program at Northwestern Michigan College, then completed a bachelor’s degree in nursing through the University of Michigan. After four years of full-time study at GVSU, he will hold a DNP designation that will qualify him to become a nurse practitioner.
The nursing profession is moving toward increased educational credentials, said Kirkhof College of Nursing Associate Dean Linda D. Scott. In 2004, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing agreed that preparation for advanced nursing practice should be moved from master’s degree to the doctorate by 2015. The doctorate will be required for nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists and nurse-midwives, Scott said.
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