Charting a New Degree

A new clinical practice doctorate for nurses, the Doctor of Nursing Practice
(D.N.P.) degree, was the focus of a regional conference Dec. 8-9 at The
University of Texas School of Nursing at Houston. UT School of Nursing Dean
Patricia Starck, D.S.N., left, talks with two of the conference speakers: Donna
Hathaway, Ph.D., right, dean of the College of Nursing at the University of
Tennessee Health Science Center, and Elizabeth Fuselier, D.N.P., a graduate of
the Tennessee D.N.P. program and new executive clinical director of UT Health
Services in Houston. Hathaway chairs the task force to consider essential
elements of the new degree for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, which sponsored the conference. For the last four years, the UT School of Nursing at Houston has been part of a national consortium of nursing schools planning the degree because of concern about future health trends that indicate problems with both primary and urgent care, as well as concern for the burden of chronic illness for an aging population. The practice doctorate would be in addition to the existing research doctorate (D.S.N. degree) to give students options. The D.N.P. has been approved by the UT System Board of Regents and is expected to be reviewed by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in April. If approved, the program could start in Fall 2006 and would be the first in Texas. Photo by Michele Mocco