Fitzgerald Appointed Director of Doctor of Nursing Practice Neonatal Nurse Practitioner Specialty

Baltimore, Md. - The University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON) has appointed Jennifer Fitzgerald, DNP ’15, MS ’00, NNP-BC, assistant professor, as the director of the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Neonatal Nurse Practitioner (NNP) specialty.

As director, Fitzgerald provides curricular leadership for the NNP specialty, overseeing all aspects of the program and ensuring all credentialing, certification, and program standards are maintained. Her responsibilities also include directing student admission and program progression and collaborating with UMSON departments on student recruitment and program marketing. Fitzgerald is focused on strengthening UMSON clinical practice relationships, ensuring the UMSON student body reflects the diversity of patients and families in the Baltimore community, and maintaining a highly successful NNP specialty.

The need for advanced practice NNPs continues to increase, as preterm birth rates have risen steadily for the past six years. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2020, 1 in 10 babies in the United States was born before 37 weeks of gestation. As one of very few DNP NNP programs in the country and the only program in Maryland, the DNP NNP specialty helps meet the demand for skilled, advanced practice NNPs.

“Dr. Fitzgerald is an expert clinician and educator, and we are fortunate to have her in the NNP specialty director role,” said Shannon K. Idzik, DNP ’10, MS ’03, CRNP, FAANP, FAAN, associate professor and associate dean for the DNP program. “She served as NNP lead at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) and began her teaching career at UMSON as an adjunct faculty member in 2017. Dr. Fitzgerald has worked closely with other UMSON NNP faculty to continue the success of the program.”

Fitzgerald joined UMSON in 2020 as an assistant professor, teaching and coordinating diagnosis and management courses in the DNP pediatric and neonatal specialties, mentoring students, and facilitating DNP scholarly projects. As the NNP specialty director, she will continue to teach and provide clinical rotation oversight in the UMSON NNP and pediatric NP Diagnosis and Management courses and serve as faculty in the DNP Scholarly Project courses. She also continues to work as an NNP for UMMC, where she has worked since 1993, first as a nurse and, since 2000, as an NNP. In her role as an NNP, Fitzgerald develops treatment plans and collaborates with multidisciplinary teams to develop strategies for managing complex conditions including congenital anomalies and prematurity issues.

Fitzgerald has authored journal publications and book chapters on neonatal and pediatric care. She has been published in Advances in Neonatal Care, the official journal of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses, and has spoken locally and nationally on topics related to neonatal care, including for the National Organization for Nurse Practitioner Faculties and the annual Neonatal Advanced Practice Nursing Forum.

Fitzgerald earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Salisbury University in Maryland and her Master of Science (Neonatal Nurse Practitioner), her Doctor of Nursing Practice, and her Teaching in Nursing and Health Professions Certificate from UMSON.

Fitzgerald succeeds Jan Wilson, DNP ’09, MS ’94, BSN ’74, CRNP, NNP-BC, C-ELBW, FAANP, assistant professor, who served as the first neonatal nurse practitioner in Maryland and the first director of UMSON’s DNP NNP specialty. Beginning in 2015, when UMSON launched the NNP specialty, Wilson worked to grow the program, graduating 30 NNPs and developing a curriculum that continues to boast a 100% certification pass rate nearly every year. Wilson will remain a member of the UMSON faculty.

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The University of Maryland School of Nursing, founded in 1889, is one of the oldest and largest nursing schools in the nation and is ranked among the top nursing schools nationwide. Enrolling more than 2,000 students in its baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral programs, the School develops leaders who shape the profession of nursing and impact the health care environment.