Page 20 - University of Martland Nursing Forum - Winter 2017

SHADY GROVE PERSPECTIVES
A Growing Family
Expanding the Family Nurse Practitioner Specialty to the Universities at Shady Grove
TBy Steve Ginsburg
he University of Maryland School of Nursing is expanding its Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
program, ranked fifth in the nation
by U.S. News & World Report, to the Universities at Shady Grove (USG) in Rockville, Maryland, next fall in an effort to draw diverse groups of students from a wider swath of the state.
Adding the DNP family nurse practitioner (FNP) specialty to USG will allow students who cannot make the trek to Baltimore—currently the only home of the program—to pursue the advanced-practice degree. Gina Rowe, PhD ’13, DNP ’10, MPH, FNP- BC, PHCNS-BC, CNE, will coordinate the program at USG and says one goal of the expansion is to “recruit from underrepresented communities.”
“We’ve never been able to reach into Western Maryland too well,” she says. “The distance was prohibitive to come from there to Baltimore. It’s much more feasible at the Rockville site. We know there is a lot of need—and not any programs—in that part of Maryland. We have a unique opportunity at the Shady Grove location because Montgomery County is extremely diverse. We’re excited. Our undergraduate nursing program there has really developed an outstanding reputation.”
The Baltimore FNP specialty graduates 20 students per year. According to
Rowe, the USG program will start with 10 students when it launches, and the following year’s incoming class will likely have twice as many.
18 WINTER 2017
The intensive primary care program, which consists of both classroom and in-the-field training with health care professionals, covers “the entire life cycle,” Rowe says, from patients “just a few days old to the elderly.”
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 the new undertaking in Montgomery County.
“What I’ve learned is that they often don’t have nurse practitioners and health care providers in underserved areas,” Gourley says. “It’s often because of a
lack of access to educational programs. In Western Maryland, many of the communities have a shortage of health care professionals. Part of the reason is that there are not many advanced degree programs that are located nearby. And if there are, they may be private or for- profit programs that are not financially viable for many students.”
Gourley says she hopes students from more rural communities will return home after graduating from the program at USG and will remain there to provide
the care that’s so needed. “Many times these communities have visiting nurse practitioners or physicians that go there for a certain amount of time, they pay back their loans, and then they leave to go start a practice somewhere else,” she says. “Rarely do they stay because they’re not
from that community. That’s a problem. “People of color and in underserved
communities really seek care from people that know, understand, and represent them. There’s no better way to bring about that connection than to have folks go back to their communities and
MIKE CIESIELSKI