UH offers first nursing doctoral degree program to address primary care provider shortage

HOUSTON - "Nurses are the number one trusted profession in the United States according to the Gallup Polls," said Dr. Kathryn Tart founding Dean and professor at the University of Houston’s nursing program.

America’s love of nurses has grown even deeper with the pandemic.

These brave men and women put their own health on the line daily and are seeing patients die more frequently.

"When someone dies when a woman is giving birth those are sacred moments and it’s traumatizing for families to not be together at death," said Kathryn Lagus a nurse practioner and student in the new program.

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Now it’s nurses not relatives that a lot of dying patients are spending their final moments with.

"There’s just something really human about being with another human being when they’re dying," said Lagus.

The pandemic is causing a shortage of nurses.

"The doctor of nursing practice is the highest educational title attainable for nurses on the practice level," Tart said.

And the one of a kind Doctor of Nursing Practice Program at U of H will prepare family nurse practitioners and nurse executives to address the shortages of primary care providers.

"These individuals all have a minimum of a Bachelors Degree in nursing or a Masters Degree in nursing and are now moving forward to this level," said Tart.

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The DNP Program is a part-time post-Masters Program for working nurses.

Students will choose between two emphasis areas.

Administration and Family Nurse Practitioners.

"I would definitely say the common thread is care and compassion," said Seleria Fletcher a Registered nurse and Chief Nursing Officer who is student in the program. "Every nurse gets into nursing because of that care and compassion they want to provide."