Assistant Professor, Program Director - Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Program
Phone: (239)590-7589
E-Mail: dchapa@fgcu.edu
Office: BHG 148

Current Teaching assignments:

• Health Appraisal & Interpretation
• Pathophysiology
• Advanced Pathophysiology 1 & 2
• Advanced Anatomy and Physiology

Dr. Chapa is an assistant professor at Florida Gulf Coast University. Her basic nursing education was obtained from West Virginia University, Parkersburg. She obtained her masters in nursing as a critical care nurse practitioner from the University of South Florida. Dr. Chapa also holds a doctorate in nursing from the University of Maryland, Baltimore with a subspecialty in critical care.

 Dr. Chapa began her career in nursing by practicing on a medical surgical unit for 1 year. After that she transferred to critical care and has worked in neurosurgical intensive care, cardiac intensive care, medical intensive care, surgical intensive care and open-heart telemetry.  Dr. Chapa has also worked as research nurse for the University of Pittsburgh functioning as a clinical coordinator for projects from the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute. She has also been a clinical case manager for intensive care, apache coordinator, and research coordinator for hospital services.

After completing her training as an acute care nurse practitioner, Dr. Chapa has worked as a nurse practitioner in a pulmonary critical care practice and in solid organ transplant surgery. She currently is a consultant with the Lee Memorial Health System developing a mid-level provider program for critical care services. She currently continues to practice by seeing patients in the Surgical Intensive Care, Medical Intensive Care and Open Heart Surgery at Health Park Medical Center in Fort Myers.

Dr. Chapa’s research interests include psychosocial variables and chronic disease. Her presentations include posters to the American Academy of Nursing and the Heart Failure Society of America. Her paper presentations have been presented to the Southern Nursing Research Society and Sigma Theta Tau. She was recently published in the American Heart Journal. Dr. Chapa is also currently funded for a project to evaluate barriers and resources for matriculation to acute care nurse practitioner graduate programs. She serves on the Research Council for the Lee Memorial Health System and is also a research mentor for the system.

Dr. Chapa currently teaches Pathophysiology and Advanced Pathophysiology to the CRNA students. She also teaches undergraduate pathophysiology to baccalaureate nursing students.

Outside of work, Dr. Chapa likes to pursue boating, fishing, yoga, scrapbooking and reading.