First Class of Doctoral Students Receiving DSN Degrees

Advanced practice nurse Cinda H. Clark became the first person ever to earn a Doctor of Science in Nursing degree from The University of Texas-Houston School of Nursing in May.

"The UT community is proud of Dr. Clark and her two colleagues who will receive their degrees later this summer," says M. David Low, M.D., Ph.D., president of the UT-Houston Health Science Center. "They have spent the last few years taking advantage of the only clinical doctoral program for nursing in the state," continues Dr. Low. "Now people in Texas will benefit from the newfound knowledge gained by these nurses."

In her dissertation, Clark, a critical care nurse for 30 years, examined the effects of feeding patients through a gastric tonometer. The device includes a tube that is inserted through the nose to the stomach allowing the instrument to monitor carbon dioxide levels in the stomach. A buildup of CO2 is an early warning sign of infection, Clark says.

Feeding a critically ill patient through the gastric tonometer would be accomplished quicker than alternative feeding methods and it would cost less. However, Clark's study using healthy volunteers showed that feeding through the device disrupts the accuracy and precision of its CO2 measurements, making them unreliable.

Such relevant work is exactly what the nursing school's Dean Patricia L. Starck, D.S.N., expects the school's doctoral graduates to contribute in their clinical settings. "I am really excited about our graduates. They will be able to have a tremendous impact on health care. As with Cinda Clark's study findings, how to improve quality and contain costs will make an immediate contribution to clinical care."

The school's D.S.N. program - the first nursing clinical doctorate in Texas - began in 1996. Now in its third year, there are 19 students in the program.

Clark defended her dissertation in March. She is working as an advanced practice nurse in the Texas Liver Center, where her doctoral experience is influencing the way she thinks about her hepatitis C patients. She is considering initiating a study to discover whether their depressive symptoms might be caused by the interferon they take to combat their disease.

Two other students - Wendy Duggleby and Patricia Washington - were hooded with Clark at commencement, but will receive their degrees in August.

Duggleby, on the nursing faculty at Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, defended her dissertation on May 6. In her dissertation, she examined how elderly cancer patients in hospices deal with pain. She plans to develop a research program around elderly hospice patients. Duggleby praised the doctoral program's "terrific" faculty and its flexibility, important for a student with a life and career three hours driving time from Houston.

On June 8, Washington, a doctoral student and research assistant at the UT-Houston Center on Aging, defended her dissertation. She conducted a study on culturally sensitive cancer education regarding breast cancer among African- American women. She showed one group of women an educational videotape about breast cancer. The other group heard in person from a cancer survivor. The second group learned more about cancer and showed reduced levels of fatalism - the attitude that if you get cancer, you die - than the video group. Washington has a one-year post-doctoral assignment in M. D. Anderson's pain management program.

"We're very proud of these students," says Janet Meininger, Ph.D., Jamail Professor in the department of nursing systems and technology and faculty coordinator for the program. "Moving through a doctoral program in three years is very difficult."

Dean Starck credited the nursing faculty with planning ahead and guiding the program, which is in demand statewide. She also acknowledged the contributions of faculty members from the UT-Houston Medical School and School of Public Health, who participate in teaching and serve on dissertation committees.

Four students have signed up in El Paso and are taking required courses taught by the School of Public Health as well as taking an interactive TV class with Houston nursing school students, which began May 27.

"The demand is ahead of us," Dean Starck says. "We won't be able to move as fast as people in the state would like. It tells us we made the right decision in starting this program."

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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