Teshekia Hawkins wanted to be a nurse since she was a little girl playing with her baby dolls. Her father, who was a nurse, would bring her cotton swabs so she could care for her tiny patients.

On May 13, Hawkins walked across the stage at the convocation ceremony for the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing as one of the first University of Arkansas graduates to take the path of Bachelor of Science in Nursing to Doctor of Nursing Practice.

The Doctor of Nursing Practice is a practice-focused doctorate for nurses who want a terminal degree with a clinical focus. A terminal degree is the highest academic degree available in a particular field of study. The University of Arkansas D.N.P. prepares advanced practice nurses to work as experts and leaders in increasingly complex health-care settings. The program offers two levels of entry, one for nurses with a bachelor's degree, like Hawkins, and one for nurses with a master's degree.

The U of A is the only nursing school in Arkansas that offers the D.N.P. option for nurses with a bachelor's degree. The other programs are post-master's only. Deborah Shirey, graduate coordinator in the nursing school, said it takes nurses longer to finish who start without a master's degree but the benefits make the program worthwhile. Graduates can pursue licensure as a family nurse practitioner or an adult geriatric acute care nurse practitioner.

"With the shortage of medical providers, this is a beneficial program with two tracks for registered nurses to pursue so they can enter into a world of providers to help reach communities of need," Shirey said.

Students can expect the program to take three to four years to complete, she said.

"It's very fast, very doable," Shirey said. "It's mostly online, and students come to campus at least one time a semester for advanced health assessment training. The beauty of it is that nurses are able to do it mostly online. That makes it convenient. We have set it up so that students are able to hold full-time jobs."

Hawkins knew that, professionally, earning a doctorate would benefit her in competition for positions.

"Having the D.N.P. will set me above those nurses with master's degrees, especially working in the Dallas area," she said. "It's very competitive here and the degree will give me an edge over other applicants. I'm more prepared to be in a leadership role. That results in improved quality of patient care."

But, there was something else for Hawkins than being a more well-rounded nurse.

 "I am the first to have a terminal degree in my family, so I would like to set an example for others," she said.

Hawkins earned her bachelor's degree in nursing from the U of A in 2010 and was living and working in Fort Smith when she started the D.N.P. program. She needed to make a change for financial reasons and was able to continue the doctoral degree program in Fayetteville after taking a charge nurse position at Baylor Medical Center in Grapevine, Texas. She also serves as a preceptor, supervising newly hired nurses at the hospital.

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing began offering the Doctor of Nursing Practice delivered online through the Global Campus in the fall of 2013.

Coursework is completed online while clinical practicum hours are arranged in the student's local area with qualified preceptors who supervise them. The degree program is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.

The online program gave her the flexibility to move during the time she was studying, Hawkins said, and she always felt she got support she needed from the faculty and staff of the nursing school.

"If I ever felt like I was overwhelmed, there was always an instructor I felt I could talk to and get help," she said.

It was her first time to take online courses and she emphasized that the online student has to be very self-disciplined.

"I tell people that all the time," she said. "It will be a struggle if you don't have that discipline. The majority of times I stayed ahead."

As a child, Hawkins knew she wanted to be either a nurse or a teacher.

"When it came time to sign up for college, I chose nursing," she said. "In nursing, we do a lot of teaching so it is both of the things I wanted to do in one. It's very rewarding. I have no regrets. Even after the hardest days I want to go back to work."