Committed to providing care to the community that raised her

Haley Warren, BSN, RN, doesn’t remember the nurse’s name, however she remembers how she made her feel. 

Warren was 10 years old, newly diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and in the hospital. Her mom had to leave for the evening, but Warren wasn’t alone that night because a nurse sat with her keeping her company. “I felt like I was important. She was helping me in a scary situation,” says Warren.

That early memory of the care she received is something that guides her as a nurse in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota — a town of less than 10,000 people, not far from where she grew up on the White Earth Reservation in northern Minnesota. 

“I remember how she made me feel and that was something that I wanted to give to other people in my community, too,” says Warren, a decedent of White Earth Tribe.

Now as a Doctor of Nursing Practice student on her way to becoming a family nurse practitioner, Warren is committed to providing care to the community that raised her. She’s one of 19 students in the school’s Doctoral Education Pathway for American Indian/Alaska Native Nurses, which supports Indigenous students with mentorship and financial assistance while earning a doctoral nursing degree.

Pathway program provides sense of belonging 

Warren attended the University of North Dakota for her pre-licensure degree because it offered a program that supported American Indian nursing students. When she learned of a similar program for doctoral nursing students at the University of Minnesota, she knew the value of the support she’d receive.

“I wanted to get my Doctor of Nursing Practice degree to further my career, so when I learned of the Pathway Program at the University of Minnesota I knew I had to go for it,” says Warren. “Being able to have a doctoral degree and provide evidence-based practice to my community was important to me.”

She credits the program — and the support that she’s received from other students and Director Misty Wilkie, PhD, RN, FAAN — for giving her a sense of belonging. 

“I have a lot of questions that I feel like students who have family members with graduate education don’t have because their families are able to answer those questions for them,” says Warren. “There’s some strength in knowing that I’m not the only one. There are quite a few of us that are in the Indigenous program and even though we’re all from different communities, we all have similar backgrounds. I feel like our communities are actually being seen and our communities are actually being represented.”

Wilkie checks in with Warren monthly and provides resources for support. “She actually found students who have taken the same class as I was in and they gave me tips and tricks on how to study, what I need to focus on and manage my time more effectively. Being able to reach out to somebody and have them come back with resources was big for me,” Warren says. “I am really family oriented so it’s nice to have a family away from family and have somebody that I can talk to with similar backgrounds. Being a first-gen student and navigating this whole system is overwhelming, so having someone who’s done this and has been in similar shoes has meant a lot to me.”

Warren is now beginning clinical experiences near her home on the White Earth Reservation and is planning to graduate in 2026.

As an RN, Warren has practiced at an Indian Health Service clinic in White Earth and a clinic in Detroit Lakes. While she’s uncertain where her APRN practice will take her specifically, she knows it will be near home.

“I’m keeping an open mind with it. I like the smaller community. I like getting to know patients and having patient care like that,” says Warren. “We need more resources in the area where I am from, so I want to stay rural. I want to be able to help my community. They were the people that supported me when I needed it, so I want to be able to give back to them.”