Considering the length of her commute, Scharmaine Lawson is no ordinary student.

Once a month, she flies from her home in New Orleans to Pittsburgh to take part in a new Doctor of Nursing Practice program inaugurated last month by Waynesburg College at its satellite campuses in Seven Fields and Monroeville.

	Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette Registered nurse Amanda Visnick goes over a chart with Marjorie Leslie at the Medical Center Clinic in Bloomfield. Ms. Leslie is a student in Waynesburg University's Doctorate Nursing Program. Click photo for larger image.

A nurse practitioner who operates her own house-call business in New Orleans, Ms. Lawson has seen the demand for her services increase dramatically in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Deciding to go on for advanced knowledge to bring back to her community and better serve the patients under her care, she surfed the Internet in search of a doctor of nursing practice program she could take online so it would not interrupt her growing business. She came across the program offered by Waynesburg College and is taking classes at the school's North Center in 1 Adams Place on Seven Fields Boulevard.

"Waynesburg was one of three colleges that accepted me into their program, but I chose to enroll there because their program requires me to attend class only one Saturday a month," she said.

Even so, Ms. Lawson will make close to 35 more round-trip flights before she finishes the three-year course of study. Each trip costs her roughly $400 for airfare, a hotel room and a rental car.

"In the long run, the benefits of the new knowledge I gain should far outweigh the initial financial sacrifices I'm now making," she said.

Another student, Marjorie Leslie, a nurse practitioner from North Fayette, began looking for additional educational opportunities soon after taking the position of clinic manager at the West Penn Allegheny Oncology Network.

"I looked at different programs available in our area and decided on the one at Waynesburg College because it's accommodating to adult students looking for a flexible and challenging curriculum," she said. "I believe the advanced knowledge I gain from the program will enable me to excel in my new position and open doors to future employment possibilities."

Except for the University of Pittsburgh, Waynesburg College and Robert Morris University are the only schools in the region offering a doctorate in nursing. Robert Morris will begin its program with the fall semester. There are about 25 such progams nationwide.

Because the program is rare, it has widespread appeal. Ms. Lawson is one of two students commuting from New Orleans. Two commute from Harrisburg and one from Richmond, Va.

Waynesburg College has been offering a bachelor of science in nursing degree since 1983, and it started a master's program in the spring of 2002. While serving on the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Task Force titled "The Road Map to DNP," Nancy Mosser, chairwoman of the nursing department at Waynesburg College, investigated the need for the advanced nursing degree.

"With the dramatic changes we're seeing in today's health care environment, such as an aging and increasingly diverse population, and exponential advances in the field of biomedicine, the sophisticated knowledge and skills that a DNP degree provides are needed now more than ever to improve patient outcomes," she said.

Soon after Waynesburg College got approval to launch its program from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education in June, the department got the word out by posting information about the doctorate on the association of nursing college's Web site. It also sent information packets to graduates of its master's program and to the chief nurse executives of hospitals across the state.

The recruitment efforts paid off last month when 32 students began Waynesburg's doctorate program with one group in Seven Fields and the other in Monroeville. Administrators hope to offer the program at the college's Southpointe campus.

All students are required to accumulate either 82 post-bachelor's of nursing or 36 post-master's credits, put in between 500 and 1,000 practice hours in their workplace and finish a written capstone project, the equivalent of a dissertation for a practice doctorate.

"Each 15-week semester is a combination of eight hours of class work a month held on a Saturday with Internet support in between sessions," Dr. Mosser said. "This is very appealing to many of our students, most of whom are from the Tri-State area, allowing them to continue working in their current fields of employment while working toward their DNP."

The curriculum is a blend of traditional classroom techniques with the latest technology in the form of a software management program called Blackboard, accessible online 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"The mission of our DNP program is to help people in our area get better health care by educating our nurse leaders," said Lynette Jack, director of the college's accelerated health care programs.

For more information on Waynesburg College's program, call 724-743-4420 or visit the graduate programs link at www.Waynesburg.edu.