Clinical Experience
Practice Experiences
The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) is a practice-focused degree that integrates practice immersion experiences within a healthcare practice setting to advance your scholarship as a doctorate-prepared student. All students will have the opportunity to complete their required practice hours with experienced mentors to enhance their learning experience.
A total of 1000 practice hours are required for program completion that meet with the AACN expectations. Previous clinical and practice experiences at the post-graduate level are considered within your degree plan.
Our students complete their practice improvement projects within a variety of community and healthcare settings working closely with their faculty advisor-team leader and practice partner. Students onboard their practice immersion hours following completion of their affiliation agreements and can begin working in these settings as early as the fall semester.
The DNP practice hours can be completed across a variety of community practice settings and healthcare organizations. Throughout the program of study, you will be exposed to a variety of didactic courses to augment and facilitate your practice and learning experiences. The DNP practice hours align with the AACN new essentials (2021) where you will advance necessary skills and build upon the AACN level two sub-competencies that prepare you as a DNP scholar. There is a total of 1000 hours as a requirement to satisfy the DNP degree.
The DNP scholarly project is a clinical practice and healthcare system process improvement and/or practice change project. In 2015, AACN in their report on The Doctor of Nursing Practice: Current Issues and Clarifying Recommendations identified the need to clarify and restate the characteristics of the DNP project and the focus of DNP programs on the translation of new science and the application and evaluation of DNP students to guide improvements in practice and outcomes in care (AACN 2015). The scholarly product of the DNP scholarly project includes a final product that reflects the changing healthcare environment. Integration of the new AACN essentials should reflect the work of the DNP scholar. The DNP scholarly project should reflect a focus on change that impacts healthcare outcomes, demonstrates implementation in the appropriate area of practice, involves a plan for sustainability, and includes an evaluation of processes and/or outcomes in which projects are designed to guide practice and policy (AACN, 2015). The DNP student is prepared to guide practice, implement change processes, integrate research methodologies and evaluate their statistical significance to support their scholarly work.
There is a final cumulative DNP scholarly project within the DNP academic program. DNP students are assigned a faculty advisor-team leader who works closely with students throughout their program. All students will be required to complete a written scholarly project as well as complete a DNP dissemination presentation. This includes sharing of the student’s final work with their practice partners, mentors, and community. The DNP scholarly project is a triad approach that includes the student, the practice partner, and the faculty advisor-team leader.
Impacting The Future Of Nursing Practice
Being prepared at the doctoral level, you will develop a blend of clinical, organizational, economic and leadership skills, that will enable you to significantly affect healthcare outcomes and advance your career.