Location: Online
Start term: Summer
Build on your master’s degree in nursing to advance your career with this terminal degree in nursing practice.
The Doctor of Nursing Practice degree is designed for advanced practice registered nurses (APRN’s) looking to reach the highest level of the nursing profession.
Offered in a convenient online format, this two-year program prepares nurses to deliver expert care, innovative practice, and translate evidence-based care to clinical practice. Students gain focused knowledge in a variety of areas, including evidence-based practice, quality improvement, and systems leadership.
Interprofessional education
Customize your degree by completing three elective courses in areas you are passionate about. Students choose from doctoral-level courses within the School of Nursing, or from a variety of doctoral degree programs within the university, including in pharmacy, public health, PA studies, and acupuncture. Elective courses include regulatory affairs and health policy, nursing education, global healthcare management, public health, and pain management.
This flexibility to customize the degree empowers students to gain specialized knowledge in a variety of fields, enhancing and diversifying their degree, and ultimately better preparing them to meet the challenges of today’s integrated healthcare field.
Scholarly project
As part of the program, students engage in rigorous scholarly work to synthesize knowledge from the program’s core and specialty courses, along with the immersion experience, to create a meaningful project that is reviewed by an academic committee. This scholarly project is based on an advanced nursing practice immersion experience, which is designed to address a nursing or healthcare problem with the goal of improving practice or healthcare outcomes. The scholarly project includes proposal, implementation, and evaluation of evidence-based practice on a variety of initiatives, including practice change, quality improvement, health promotion/disease prevention, community outreach, or policy analysis. Examples of scholarly project topics include: “Smoking Cessation Program for Patients with Coronary Artery Disease,” “Safe Foot Care in African American Type 2 Diabetes,” “Strategies to Improve Patient Flow in an Urgent Care Facility,” and “Consequences, Prevention and Treatment of Childhood Overweight and Obesity”.
Study online
The DNP program is offered online, allowing students to balance career advancement with the rest of their busy lives. Designed for working nurses, the DNP program provides an online pathway for nurses to enhance their current practice and expand future opportunities. The format of this part-time program allows students to continue working full-time while advancing their education, and uses creative teaching and learning approaches, in order to deliver high quality distance education.
In-person experiences
While a majority of the program is offered online, the program also includes three, 3-day on-campus residencies designed to empower students to connect in-person with their classmates and faculty. These connections represent an important networking opportunity, as students advance their educations and careers.