At the heart of Frontier Nursing University is a talented and diverse community of students, alumni, faculty, staff, Couriers and preceptors. Spotlight blogs feature members of our FNU community that are focused on the mission of educating nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners to deliver quality health care to underserved and rural populations.
Frontier Nursing University (FNU) student Denise Devonshire, MNS-Ed, is working to provide education on pregnancy, labor and delivery in her community. A resident of Manhattan, Kansas, Devonshire is set to graduate next year (Class 195) and is pursuing her MSN in Nurse-Midwifery. She also holds a master’s degree in Nursing Education.
Devonshire currently works in a military treatment facility, where she serves military service women and dependent wives. In her role, she educates her patients on physiologic birth.
“I strive to take this education to my community to make their pregnancy along with their labor and delivery as safe as possible,” she said.
In the future, Devonshire hopes to establish a freestanding birth center in her community to offer services to not just the military population, but to civilians too.
Working with a rural population, Devonshire is working to become a nurse-midwife to help provide much-needed midwifery services to her community. In her community, there are 1,470 patients to one women’s health care provider.
“I want to bring midwifery to my community to show that holistic women’s health is an avenue to pursue in lifelong women’s health care,” she said.
Devonshire said she chose to attend FNU in this pursuit because she personally knows many APRNs who successfully earned advanced degrees from the university and she was inspired by the rich history of the university.
Along the way, Devonshire said she has been consistently impressed by the professionalism and commitment of professors at FNU. She said she hopes to become a preceptor for future FNU students.
“If there are any hiccups that come along, the professors reach out and meet with you one-on- one to help you to complete the course,” she said. “They invest their time to help you to succeed. I invest my time to pay it back and pass the class.”
Devonshire has three grown children and is married to her husband of 25 years. She enjoys crocheting and cross-stitching, attending college sporting events, reading and spending time with family and friends.
Thank you, Denise, for choosing FNU in your pursuit to further your education and your commitment to the healthcare of your community.
Visit our website to learn more about nurse-midwifery or FNU’s nurse-midwifery program.
Dr. Tia Brown McNair is the Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and Executive Director for the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in Washington, DC. She oversees both funded projects and AAC&U’s continuing programs on equity, inclusive excellence, high-impact practices, and student success. McNair directs AAC&U’s Summer Institutes on High-Impact Practices and Student Success, and TRHT Campus Centers and serves as the project director for several AAC&U initiatives, including the development of a TRHT-focused campus climate toolkit. She is the lead author of From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education (January 2020) and Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success (July 2016 and August 2022 Second edition).