Reply With QuoteMore on the story: UNR, UNLV partner to offer advanced nursing degree | rgj.com | The Reno Gazette-Journal
A new advanced nursing degree will be offered next fall for graduate students through the University of Nevada, Reno and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
The two universities are teaming up to offer the two-year, 39-credit program for a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree that will prepare graduates for administration positions in the field.
The program will be offered entirely online, with seven courses taught by UNR faculty and seven courses by UNLV faculty, Patsy Ruchala, director of UNR's Orvis School of Nursing, said Thursday.
"The courses will be taught totally online, but the students will be required to come to the campus where they are enrolled for one week each academic year for their orientation and projects," she said.
Each school will accept 14 graduate students into the new program, but they must submit their applications to UNR or UNLV by March 31.
"This is a real effort between the two universities to look at our resources and, where we can, collaborate to better use those resources for the state," she said.
Students in the two-year program also can take additional courses to qualify to become nurse educators, Ruchala said.
Marc Johnson, UNR's provost, stressed that graduates of the new nursing program will earn a doctorate degree, not a Ph.D.
"This degree does not really enhance the ability of nurses to practice their nursing a lot, but it creates areas where nurses can take on higher leadership roles in hospitals and in public health clinics and in companies, if they want to become an administrator of a corporation," he said.
Johnson estimated there are about 200 such nursing doctorate programs in the country.
And it is mostly on-line....
