Doctor of Nursing

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

The DNP is a post-master's program based on The Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice (AACN, 2006) guidelines for the curriculum, and reflects a inter-disciplinary design incorporating appropriate graduate level courses from other disciplines. For example, courses from the Management Department in organizational behavior, systems, finance and performance; Health Information and Informatics Department, courses in technical applications - workflow design; and lastly program evaluation from Psychology. Students come to the program as skilled advanced practice nurses, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists and other specialties.

This post-master's program is designed to guide nursing profressionals in the development of a higher level of skill at the organizational and systems level of practice for improving health care outcomes that focus on the following essential elements:

* Scientific Underpinngs for Practice
* Organizational and System Leadership for Quality Improvement and Systems Thinking
* Clinical Scholarship and Analytical Methods for Evidence-Based Practice
* Information System/Technology and Patient Care Technology for the improvement and Transformation of Health Care
* Health Care Policy for Advocacy in Health Care

* Inter-professional Collaboration for Improving Patient and Population Health outcomes
* Clinical Prevention and Population Health for Improving the Nation's Health
* Advanced Nursing Practice
* Systems Change
* Leadership in Health Care