Florida State University’s College of Nursing has been recognized as the nation’s first health professions program to provide students with a full academic pathway to lifestyle medicine certification.
The honor was announced by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.
This distinction ensures that students enrolled in the college’s Doctor of Nursing Practice Lifestyle Medicine track will graduate having fulfilled all prerequisites necessary to sit for the lifestyle medicine certification exam administered by the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine.
Achieving this certification indicates a professional’s expertise in the evidence-based treatment, reversal and prevention of chronic diseases. Currently, more than 8,000 health care professionals worldwide hold lifestyle medicine certifications.
Alicia Craig-Rodriguez, clinical professor and coordinator of the Lifestyle Medicine track at the FSU College of Nursing, is responsible for overseeing the program.
“This important designation demonstrates that FSU’s rigorous program is dedicated to providing students with a ‘deep dive’ into lifestyle medicine education and training,” she said.
FSU College of Nursing Dean Jing Wang shared her thoughts on this achievement.
“Dr. Craig-Rodriguez is a trailblazer in lifestyle medicine,” she said. “I am so proud of the work she and her colleagues have done to secure such a distinction.”
The Lifestyle Medicine track is one of five available to graduate students interested in pursuing their DNP. The Doctor of Nursing Practice program is part of the college’s robust online graduate program, which includes the newly launched Master of Science in Nursing, the nation’s first MSN with a concentration in AI Applications in Health Care.
The college is also home to the nation’s first nursing college-based, nurse practitioner-led lifestyle medicine clinic, which is now accepting patients by phone at (850) 655-4434 or by email at clinicinfo@nursing.fsu.edu.
For more information on the FSU College of Nursing and its academic programs, visit nursing.fsu.edu