The School of Nursing and School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have suspended new admissions into the MS/MPH Online Dual Degree Program. This is due to new accreditation rules for schools of Public Health which are accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health Accreditation. This new requirement would result in the dual degree program requiring 72 credit hours. However, as many of you know, the School of Nursing began its Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Program in Fall 2006 with a track in Public Health Nursing leadership in which post-baccalaureate students can complete a doctoral degree with a total of 79 credit hours. If you hold a masters degree, the post-masters credit requirements may be substantially less. As a result of these changes, all new applicants interested in Public Health Nursing are now being prepared at the doctoral level in accordance with the recommendations of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

We are very excited to be one of the first Universities to offer this new Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. The program will accept applications from baccalaureate-prepared and masters-prepared applicants. It has been designed to prepare graduates in the area of Public Health Nursing Leadership. Furthermore, the Public Health track of the DNP will be available in a fully online format for students who wish to complete the degree from all parts of the country.

You can find out more about the DNP Program by visiting the graduate programs page on the School of Nursing website and following the links for the DNP program. I hope you will consider applying to the Doctor of Nursing Practice Program and joining us in our efforts to prepare advanced practice nurses at the highest level.