Radford University's first online degree, a doctor of nursing practice, was approved Tuesday by the State Council of Higher Education.

Since the doctor of nursing practice concept was embraced by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing in 2004, more than 200 nursing programs across the country have converted or are converting their master's of nursing science programs to DNPs. One of the first 26 programs was developed at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs by Kathleen LaSala, who now directs Radford's School of Nursing.

Radford's program, like Colorado's, will be a distance-learning model. All of the classes will be available online, and most of the clinical work can be done wherever students live.

The model is intended to offer flexible scheduling and allow the university to reach into underserved rural areas.

The doctor of nursing practice is Radford's third doctoral program. The university began offering a doctoral degree in psychology in the fall. A doctorate of physical therapy program is scheduled to hold its first classes this coming fall.

-- Tim Thornton