Local News
71-Year-Old Texas Nurse Goes Back to School and Gets Her Doctorate
It’s never too late to get your education, and Sabine County resident Dr. Janice Napier is proof that one should never give up on their goals. At 71-years-old, she’s obtained her doctorate after completing her Direct Practice Improvement. “I do not feel old,” Napier told KTRE. “My mind is seeking. I am always trying to learn.”
When Napier was only 9-years-old she saw her father resuscitate a man who was near death, and the event sparked a calling in her. She worked in the medical field as a nurse. “The opportunity came to get my master’s degree when I was 50 years old,” Napier told the news. “I graduated in December 1998 from UTMB through their dual master’s and family nurse practitioner program. I went to work for [St.Luke’s Memorial Clinics] in 1999 and have been employed as a family nurse practitioner at Memorial ever since.”
Getting one’s doctorate degree later on in life has become more popular. A recent article in the New York Times said that at Cornell University, “The number of new female doctoral students age 36 or older was 44 percent higher last year than in 2009.” They attribute older students to the fact that more career paths are requiring higher degrees and that older people have a clearer sense of which route one wants to take in life.
