Now a decade into her medical career, she is a graduate student in the nursing practice innovation program at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth. Starting in the fall, she also will be enrolled in the new psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner program offered at the Health Science Center. 

One word threads these two graduate nursing programs together: innovation. 

Macklin joined the programs with the hope of fostering new ideas to bridge the gap.

“The health care industry is forever changing,” Macklin said. “It can be fixed and I want to be part of it.”

Founded in 2023, the College of Nursing at the UNT Health Science Center’s mission is to create professional nurses through remarkable practice, interprofessional collaboration, education, research and service. The program specifically emphasizes innovation as a way to prepare its students to fill the nursing gap in Tarrant County.

“We have threaded this mindset so that all of our nurses will be finding the solutions for the problems that we’re facing in health care,” said Cindy Weston, founding dean of the nursing school.

The master’s of science in nursing, or MSN, in nursing practice innovation and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner programs emphasize specialized classes that help seasoned nurses prepare for the future of the industry by fostering a technology-forward and an entrepreneurial approach. Additionally, the college is working with other local health care entities to expand access to forensic nursing training starting in summer 2025.

“Nurses have always had innovative ideas, but never necessarily the scaffolding around them to scale them into innovation,” Weston said.

‘We have this technology’

The nursing practice innovation degree is the first of its kind in Texas, according to officials. 

The program has nine areas of specialized concentrations, including chronic disease management, digital health and technology, simulation in nursing and health care, and substance use disorder. 

Nursing experts in the subject matter fields teach the specialized courses. 

“Our professors are so multidimensional and vast in their knowledge,” Macklin said. “It just really opened my eyes.”

Macklin’s specialization is digital health and technology. A large focus in her class is learning to work with other teams who may be in health care settings, such as information technology or operations, in order to maximize nursing efforts. 

“As nurse innovators, the idea is that we’re going to go into companies, hospitals and clinics, and saying, ‘Why are we doing it this way? Let’s be more efficient. We have this technology now, let’s integrate it,’” Macklin said.

Integrating artificial intelligence is another aspect of the nursing innovation program. 

Barbara Chapman, a professor and innovation track coordinator, said some students are combining the Health Science Center’s simulation center and AI to help specific populations, like correctional health implementation. 

“Another one of our students is using AI in flight nursing and simulation,” Chapman said. “They’re using telehealth apps and chat bots in different formats to help patients.”

Much of the innovative nursing training looks at solutions, then prototyping and testing for problem solving, Chapman said. The process also is called design thinking.

“That’s where we’re going to see a difference on the other side of when our students graduate after taking these electives,” Chapman said. “I think that they’re going to come out with a whole different perspective on what they can do.”

The digital health and technology specialization teaches students to virtually monitor patient progress and interface with them remotely, Weston said. This way, patients can receive hospital level care, but while at home or work.

“Patients need nurses who understand technology,” Weston said. “A lot of this has started in our local community, but it’s proliferating throughout the United States. It’s a model that can really help us deliver care in areas that don’t have the same access as Fort Worth.”

Filling the forensic nursing gap

While recruiting faculty for the college, Weston ensured the nursing professor’s mindset aligned with the college’s mission. She recently recruited leading forensic nurse scientist Nancy Downing to educate sexual assault nurse examiners. These nurses collect evidence after a sexual trauma and victimization.

The nurses will train as part of the North Texas Area Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Consortium. The College of Nursing partnered with JPS Health Network, Tarrant County College, and other local health care entities. 

Students will train to process forensic evidence at the campus’ Center for Human Identification. The program, funded by a $1.5 million federal grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration, will increase the number of sexual assault nurse examiners in North Texas and improve access for forensic nurse exams. 

“In Tarrant County alone, there are over 1,700 sexual assault crimes reported every year,” Downing said. “There’s a high need for medical forensic exams afterwards because those exams are so important for addressing health issues, both physical and mental. They really can impact long-term healing as well, if they are done with a trauma-informed approach.”

Innovation in forensic nursing involves deploying methods during exams to ensure that the outcomes are maximized and meet the needs of both the justice system and the patient, Downing said. 

Approaches may include the use of alternate light sources to better visualize bruise injuries, particularly on darker skinned people, coming up with more comfortable pelvic examination techniques, or incorporating trauma healing exercises for patients.

“We feel that this is going to be a synergy that can really emerge new ways and refine ways of streamlining that so that individuals receive justice,” Weston said. 

The program’s goal? Preparing at least 20 forensic nurses each year for North Texas. 

Noura Farih, a nursing innovation student, couldn’t give enough praise to the mindsets of the nursing school’s professors, administrators and program coordinators like Chapman, Weston and Downing. 

She consistently feels empowered.

“They’re exactly what nurses need,” Farih said. “They’re talking about what’s happening now, and not talking about the way we used to do things. They uplift and inspire and believe that we can make changes.”

Kathryn Miller is a reporting fellow at the Fort Worth Report. 

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

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