• 2025 Razorbug Diploma Tour •

Online Degree Delivers Leadership Skills to Little Rock Nurse

Devon Stubblefield, a Little Rock nurse, not only wanted to help as many people as possible, she wanted a greater voice in HOW she helped them. After earning her doctoral degree in nursing, she can help plan her patients' care instead of just following orders.

"Eventually, I'd like to have my own practice and be a leader and have the ability to say how I want to take care of patients," Stubblefield said.

While not an easy or short path, Stubblefield's online journey to earn her degree from the University of Arkansas has been worthwhile, she said. She succeeded despite a pandemic and personal tragedy.

The Razorbug Diploma Tour, a statewide event celebrating student success, stopped in Maumelle on June 23 to honor Stubblefield's achievement.

She began her career in nursing with an associate's degree. Next, she earned a bachelor's degree delivered online by the U of A Eleanor Mann School of Nursing. At that point, she decided to take a direct route to the highest degree possible in nursing, the Doctor of Nursing Practice. The DNP, also delivered online by the U of A nursing school, hones leadership skills of family nurse practitioners.

"I want to be able to show that I am a health care professional, and I'm willing to take any issues that we're having, culturally even, and just make a difference in those lives by saying I'm here to help you make it a better place," Stubblefield said during the diploma presentation on a stormy afternoon alongside the Arkansas River at Maumelle. "I also want to be a leader in my community."

 

Patient Relationships

The University of Arkansas offers two options for the degree that combines online coursework with clinical components: from the Bachelor of Science in Nursing or from the Master of Science in Nursing. The BSN to DNP route typically takes four years but a master's degree is not required. The DNP has one concentration: family nurse practitioner.

Working in primary care gives family nurse practitioners the opportunity to build relationships with patients, Stubblefield said.

"I wanted to be able to help people in the best way I knew how, and that's being personable with them, learning about who they are," she said. "Being in primary care, you have that ability to develop that connection. You see people come in once a month or every few months, you become part of their family, become a part of their care team. It's teamwork between you and the patient."

Stubblefield believes earning certification as a family nurse practitioner is the best way to accomplish her goals, and the BSN to DNP route best fit her life.

"I wanted to go ahead and just complete it," Stubblefield said, "so that I wouldn't have to worry about going back to school and potentially having to take more time off work and delaying any process of going forward. Doing the BSN to DNP allowed me to go ahead and have that doctorate degree without delaying the process even further."

 

Razorbug Diploma Tour

The past four summers, U of A faculty and staff accompanied the little red Volkswagen Beetle – a converted 2019 model with curly tail, razor spine, hooves, snout and tusks – to celebrate graduates of degree programs offered online.

Marilou Shreve, associate professor of nursing, presented Stubblefield's framed diploma to her beside a private dock on the Arkansas River at Maumelle. Shreve was Stubblefield's adviser in the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing, which is part of the College of Education and Health Professions at the U of A.

Stubblefield also was awarded funding for her degree through the multimillion-dollar Advanced Nursing Education Workforce grant that Shreve received along with another nursing professor. ANEW's focus is ensuring a sufficient number of highly educated, culturally competent and clinically skilled family nurse practitioners are available to practice. Its aim is to serve rural populations that are traditionally underserved in medical care.

 

Online Education

Stubblefield's experience in the U of A's online RN to BSN program set the stage for her doctoral degree. She described the bachelor's program as seamless.

"I wanted to continue that seamless education," Stubblefield said.

The online format provided flexibility she needed to work and go to school, which was necessary for her in both her undergraduate and graduate programs.

"That first-year experience from getting my RN to my BSN really made an impact and was very influential on continuing my education in the BSN to DNP," she said.

 

Facing Challenges

Stubblefield started her doctoral degree in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic and finished it in 2025 while helping care for her mother, who had a terminal illness and died in February.

"I lean into my work when things are tough," Stubblefield said. "If I scale back, I'm not coming back. I push myself so I can focus."

Staying on top of the work is vital, Stubblefield said. She did not study only at home. She took her books and laptop everywhere she could – her in-laws' home along the Arkansas River during weekends, her job during breaks, her clinical sites during lunch and on the road.

"This program is not for the weak," she said she would tell a nurse just starting it, "but also if you just try your best, you always have options. There are always people to help you. Reach out to your classmates, develop text message groups, develop email chains between you and your instructors, and you have the tools to succeed just as long as you develop that community amongst everybody that you're with. I know without my fellow classmates I wouldn't have been able to make it, with all of my sanity at least."

 

Grant Funding

The ANEW grant funding did not just help pay expenses for Stubblefield and other recipients. It also strengthened connections through mandatory on-campus training sessions.

"Whenever we would have to come to campus once a month, we developed that relationship by seeing each other just that once," she said. "We developed this group chat and that's how we decided, 'Hey, let's help each other. This is a team effort. We're all going to make it.'"

The ANEW grant requires a clinical experience in a rural setting that lasts at least two semesters, Shreve explained. Recipients learn a community's assets and its barriers, and people in the community watch the recipients grow as they learn. The funding also allows recipients to decrease their work hours and focus on their education without as much financial stress.