As Glory Dioh-Esona, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, searched for a graduate school to help her nursing career blossom, Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions (RMU) stood out for two reasons — limited-residency programs and small class sizes.
“I researched about it and immediately loved what I read,” recalled Dr. Dioh-Esona, a Georgia resident. “So, I enrolled into Rocky Mountain University because of that.”
That versatility and beneficial student-to-faculty ratio (6:1) are among the many ways nurses can excel through RMU’s hybrid model.
The structure of RMU’s nursing program — combined with stellar faculty, technology, facilities, accredited curriculum, and agility — strategically helps nurses advance their clinical knowledge, skills, and marketability in a hybrid situation.
For Dr. Dioh-Esona, those benefits allowed her to stay in Atlanta, where she worked as a nurse practitioner (NP) while earning Doctor of Nursing Practice and Family Nursing Practitioner degrees and a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Certificate.
In addition, Dr. Dioh-Esona embraced the short time each semester when the nursing students traveled to RMU’s campus in Provo, Utah, for impactful, hands-on training sessions in person.
“I felt the impact of that limited-residency program during my clinical rotations,” said Dr. Dioh-Esona, who now serves as the RMU Alumni Association president.
“I was always one step ahead of my peers from other programs simply because when we came to campus during one week of each semester, we always did clinical practice that would equip us towards our clinical rotations.”
Like how Dr. Dioh-Esona continued to work at Southwest Atlanta Nephrology, P.C, while going to a grad school based on the other side of the country, nurses from across the United States have the convenience of earning advanced degrees and certificates at RMU from home instead of uprooting and leaving their jobs.
Ways RMU’s hybrid model can help nurses excel:
- Flexibility and accessibility for working nurses: RMU’s hybrid and remote programs allow working nurse practitioners to keep their roots in their own communities, where they can continue to make an impact in their current position and in their own homes instead of relocating. This makes pursuing graduate degrees in nursing more attainable while maintaining balance in work, life, and school.
- Enhanced skill development through hybrid learning: While gaining the benefits of doing most coursework from home, the three onsite intensives allow students to network with other professionals while working in a hands-on environment at RMU. Students spend time in the University’s cadaver lab with standardized patients and virtual anatomy lab to gain advanced clinical skills.
- Real-world application via clinical preceptorships: Nurses have a beneficial opportunity to pursue focused, specialty-only clinical experiences in their area to learn through hands-on experiences where they live. While the practicum is completed locally, RMU supports in securing qualified preceptors.
- Cost effective and time efficient: Aside from saving on moving expenses and lodging near campus in the hybrid and remote programs, RMU’s locked-in tuition provides financial predictability. The University’s streamlined scheduling — consecutive semesters — efficiently prepares students to complete focused work in less time.
- Preparation for leadership roles: RMU alumni from the DNP program, for example, have more doors opened for administrative and clinical management, starting their own practice, moving up, or continuing their career in teaching.
- Specialized tracks for advanced practice
- Accredited and evidence-based curriculum
- Access to diverse digital resources
- Improved time management
- Collaboration and networking opportunities
- Technology proficiency
- Personalized learning paths
- Support for lifelong learning
- Mental health and work-life balance
- Feedback and mentorship from expert faculty — remotely and in-person
- Building resilience and adaptability
- High retention and success rates
- Focus on community impact
