WNMU will begin enrolling graduate students in its Master of Science in Nursing in Community and Rural/Frontier Health program starting fall 2023. All of the classes in the program will be taught online, making the program available to working nurses across the nation. Students will be able to begin their coursework in any semester and complete their clinical work in their own communities. Graduates from the program will emerge prepared to become Family Nurse Practitioners.
This newly relaunched program is the only one in New Mexico and one of very few in the United States to focus on community and rural/frontier care. Health care providers in this field are in very high demand, not only in New Mexico, but in other states with large rural populations. The online program at WNMU is designed to help satisfy the need for more health care providers in underserved communities.
Required coursework for the degree can be completed in as little as one year. In addition, the program will be affordable for working nurses, as graduate tuition at WNMU is competitively priced and textbooks are included. There is currently no limit to the number of students that may be admitted to the program.
The faculty in the School of Nursing and Kinesiology (SONAK) have been busy developing the program and are looking forward to the launch of classes, said Kimberly Petrovic, Associate Dean of SONAK. “Relaunching the MSN program required dedication, renewed thinking, and unwavering support from nursing faculty and staff, the students who remained part of the original MSN program, and university leadership. Successful accreditation of the MSN program was based on teamwork and nursing’s commitment to the mission and vision to improve health care for our communities,” she said.