Nursing, D.N.P.

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Admission to the Doctorate of Nursing Practice Program is suspended effective July, 2018.

The Doctor of Nursing Practice (D.N.P.) degree prepares graduates to provide the most advanced level of nursing care for individuals and communities. This care includes the direct care of individual patients, management of care for individuals and populations, administration of nursing systems, and development and implementation of health policy. The D.N.P. program emphasizes practice-related consideration beyond what a student typically acquired during their master’s level education. The D.N.P. is designed to prepare experts in specialized advanced nursing practice and focuses heavily on practice that is innovative and evidence-based, reflecting the application of credible research findings. Students in the D.N.P. program generally carry out a practice application-oriented final project. Time spent on the project constitute the clinical hours for this program and generally total about 500 hours.

The D.N.P. course of study is targeted to individuals with a master’s degree in advanced practice nursing, e.g., nurse practitioner, clinical nurse specialist, nurse midwife, and nurse anesthetist.

Program Requirements

The D.N.P. program is a low residency program. Courses are offered in several formats, including face to face, online, and blended. To encourage interprofessional collaboration and scholarship, D.N.P. students enroll in courses across the university. A total of 36 credits are required for completion of the program; total credit hours may increase if additional credit hours are needed to complete the D.N.P. project. The number of required residency hours (contact hours) in the doctoral program is a minimum of 500 hours. Residency hours are accrued while working on the D.N.P. project. When added to the clinical hours obtained in the applicant’s master’s program, the total should be a minimum of 1,000 contact hours.

Required Courses (Minimum 36 Credits)

MPH 525 - American Health Systems
MPH 535 - Introduction to Epidemiological Research (or equivalent)
MPH 545 - Applied Biostatistical Analysis
MPH 683 - Patient Safety
NUR 693 - Ethical Inquiry in Health Care (online from the University of Maine)
or
NUR 701 - Ethical Approaches to Practice Dilemmas
NUR 702 - Informatics Technology (or equivalent)
NUR 703 - Professional Communication (or equivalent)
NUR 705 - Clinical Residency and DNP Project I
NUR 706 - Clinical Residency and DNP Project II
NUR 710 - Seminar I
NUR 711 - Seminar II
NUR 712 - Seminar III
NUR 713 - Seminar IV
NUR 714 - Seminar V
NUR 715 - Seminar VI

Total Credits: 36

Note: In the event the D.N.P. project is not completed by the end of the program, the student may take GRS 701 - Doctoral Continuation Credits (1-3 credits) to complete the project.