UHV gets approval for new family nurse practitioner master’s program
The University of Houston-Victoria’s Master of Science in Nursing family nurse practitioner track was approved last week by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, leading the way for the first classes to start this fall.
The new graduate-level family nurse practitioner program will help address the shortage of health care providers in the state, said Kathryn Tart, founding dean of the UHV School of Nursing.
 |
| Kathryn Tart |
“Our communities, especially the rural and medically underserved areas, are in desperate need of advanced practice nurses,” she said. “The new program will fulfill a need for more primary care providers who not only diagnose patients but also educate them on the importance of healthy lifestyles.”
Nurse practitioners’ scope of practice is to diagnose and prescribe medication for common, well-defined health care needs. They also provide health promotion and illness prevention. The UHV family nurse practitioner degree is designed to prepare students to practice as nurse practitioners and educators in nursing programs, to translate research into practice and to assume leadership roles in advance nursing practices.
“This new graduate-level nursing program has received both financial and community support, which indicates that it is responding to a clear need,” UHV President Phil Castille said. “The new family nurse practitioners who will be training at UHV can provide health care to patients in Victoria and the surrounding areas.”
 |
| Phil Castille |
The UHV School of Nursing recently was awarded an $800,000 grant from Houston Endowment for the MSN family nurse practitioner track. It is one of the largest grants in the university’s history, but it was contingent on the program getting approval from the state coordinating board. Now that approval has been conferred, the grant will be disbursed. It will support students in the new program.
“I am proud of our faculty and staff’s dedication to designing this program and receiving final approval for it from the UH System and the state coordinating board,” Tart said.
Interested students should apply before July 15, as space is limited for the fall semester. Graduate student stipends are available for full-time students. Classes are scheduled for UHV’s main campus in Victoria, and at UH Sugar Land and the UH System at Cinco Ranch in Katy, where the UHV School of Nursing offers programs. Nursing students also can take nursing administration and education tracks within the school’s MSN program.
Founded in 2007, UHV School of Nursing is the youngest of the university’s four schools. UHV’s School of Nursing serves the UH System with bachelor’s and master’s programs and was admitted in the fall to membership in the Texas Medical Center in Houston. The UHV School of Nursing is approved by the Texas Board of Nursing and is nationally accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.
For more information about UHV nursing programs, visit www.uhv.edu/nursing or call toll free 877-970-4848, ext. 4370.
The University of Houston-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region since 1973 in Victoria, Texas, offers courses leading to more than 80 academic programs in the schools of Arts & Sciences; Business Administration; and Education, Health Professions & Human Development. UHV provides face-to-face classes at its Victoria campus, as well as an instructional site in Katy, Texas, and online classes that students can take from anywhere. UHV supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Opportunities for All initiative to increase awareness about state colleges and universities and the important role they have in providing a high-quality and accessible education to an increasingly diverse student population, as well as contributing to regional and state economic development.
