More nurses soon will be able to serve patients in rural eastern North Carolina at an advanced level now that the necessary training has been made available, education leaders at East Carolina University said Monday.

The university’s College of Nursing received approval Friday from The University of North Carolina’s Board of Governors to offer a doctor of nursing practice program beginning this fall. The DNP degree is the highest level of clinical practice education for nurses. Doctor of nursing practice clinicians are experts in applying research findings to clinical practice and improving health care delivery systems, college officials said.

“We’re very excited about the news,” Sylvia Brown, dean of the College of Nursing, said. “It makes us competitive at a national level. There are many DNP programs throughout the country, but they were only offered to students in North Carolina at two private schools, so we were lagging behind the rest of the country.”

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