University of Texas Arlington

ARLINGTON - Diane Snow, director of the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Program at the UT Arlington College of Nursing, was recently inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners at the group’s national conference in Las Vegas.

Diane Snow

The award honors nurses who have made outstanding contributions to health care through nurse practitioner clinical practice, research, education or policy. It also provides them a platform from which to continue their efforts.

Snow, who has been a faculty member at UT Arlington’s College of Nursing since 1979, is a nationally recognized leader in the area of psychiatric nursing and a past president of the International Nurses Society on Addictions. She is also the current president of the Foundation for Addictions Nursing. Her work has extended to areas of addictions, substance abuse prevention, violence prevention, trauma recovery, co-occurring disorders and peer assistance among health professionals.

“Dr. Snow is widely respected as an educational pioneer in the psychiatric mental health nursing fields and a tireless advocate for individuals with mental health and substance use disorders,” Susan M. Adams, professor and director of the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Program at Vanderbilt University, said in nominating Snow. “She is an articulate spokesperson and a scholarly writer who will help advance AANP’s initiatives particularly in areas regarding mental health care, addictions and mental health policy.”

Snow successfully transitioned UT Arlington’s psychiatric clinical nurse specialist program to a family and adult psychiatric nurse practitioner program in 1995. Since then, more than 150 psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners have graduated from the University. Under Snow’s leadership, UT Arlington also began including psychiatric diagnosis and clinical management as a core course in every nurse practitioner specialty. That move has resulted in more than 1,400 nursing practitioner graduates gaining exposure to these fundamentals.

“Being selected as a fellow of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners is truly a highlight of my career and I am humbled and honored to receive this recognition,” Snow said. “I am very proud that we are graduating outstanding psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners who are providers of excellent mental health care to children and adults in our community and around the country.”

UT Arlington’s College of Nursing is now the largest, and one of the most successful, programs in Texas with 6,631 students in Spring 2011. It is also one of the 10 largest nursing programs in the United States. Visit http://www.uta.edu/nursing/ to learn more.

The University of Texas at Arlington is a comprehensive undergraduate and graduate research institution of 33,800 students in the heart of North Texas. Visit www.uta.edu to learn more.

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The University of Texas at Arlington is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer.