Nursing (D.N.P)
Marymount’s Doctor of Nursing Practice (D.N.P.) program provides the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to negotiate and improve the health care system.
Acquired skills include those needed to develop evidence-based practice protocols, develop and utilize databases, and apply epidemiological methods. Students will endeavor to develop new models of care delivery and to become expert in a specific area of nursing. Further, students will expand their knowledge of health care policy and finance to better negotiate and influence the health care delivery system and to advocate for improved care for individuals and aggregates. Graduates with this terminal degree will be prepared for roles in direct care or indirect, systems-focused care.
Upon successful completion of the D.N.P. program, students will be able to
- develop new approaches to advanced nursing practice and health care delivery based on scientific knowledge and theories of nursing and other disciplines;
- demonstrate clinical, organizational, and systems-level leadership through design of innovative models of caring;
- design methods for evaluating clinical outcomes to direct evidence-based practice for improving health care outcomes;
- utilize knowledge drawn from epidemiological, statistical, and technological data to implement quality improvement initiatives for practice with individuals, aggregates, or populations;
- lead inter-professional teams in the analysis of complex practice and organizational issues;
- demonstrate leadership in health policy advocacy at the local, state, and federal level;
- demonstrate advanced levels of clinical judgment, systems thinking, and accountability in designing, delivering, and evaluating evidence-based care to improve patient outcomes;
- apply ethical analysis when generating policy, research, and practice; and
- use conceptual and analytical skills in evaluating the links among practice, organizational, population, fiscal, and policy issues.
Doctoral Scholarly Project: Students complete a project that integrates the practice and scholarship essentials of the D.N.P. degree. The project is designed to be completed in four semesters. Students are expected to present a summary of their scholarly project at a university, regional, or national conference.
Degree Requirements — Nursing (D.N.P.)
Marymount offers two pathways to a DNP degree. Students enrolled in the post-master's track will take the courses listed below. Baccalaureately prepared students may obtain a DNP with a dual enrollment in a master's track (FNP, PMHNP, other health related track) and upon completion move into the DNP course sequence.
The DNP degree may be obtained through a post-masters track or a post baccalaureate in nursing pathway. Credits hours vary in accordance to the chosen masters track. Students choosing a master's track requiring post masters completion certification examination will be registered as masters and DNP students. These students will be awarded a masters degree, then continue on to complete DNP coursework.
Degree Required Courses
30-39 credits
All students must have taken a graduate-level statistics course within five years of admission. If this requirement is not fulfilled, NU 590 (Health Care Data Analysis) will be added to the plan of study prior to NU 705 (Multivariate Analysis).
| IPE 715 | Critical Assessment and Research Methods I for Evidence-Based Health Care Practice | 3 |
| NU 515 | Accounting Basics for Health Care Managers | 3 |
| NU 701 | Innovative Models of Care Delivery | 3 |
| NU 702 | Epidemiology | 3 |
| NU 703 | Research Methods and Applications | 3 |
| NU 705 | Multivariate Analysis | 3 |
| NU 706 | Policy and Advocacy in Health Care | 3 |
| NU 707 | Leadership, Quality, and Ethics in Health Care | 3 |
| NU 800 | Residency | 3 |
| NU 801 | Doctoral Project | 3 |
| NU 899 | Independent Study | 1 |
Post-baccalaureate clinical hours must total to a minimum of 1000 at the completion of the DNP degree. 500 of these hours are completed in 800 level course work and are typically project-focused. Students whose master's degree does not include clinical hours that lead to certification as an advanced practice registered nurse must complete an additional 500 residency hours at the doctoral level for a total of 1000 post baccalaureate clinical hours. If more than one semester is required for completion of NU 703, NU 800, or NU 801 students may complete it by registering for independent study credits (NU 899) for a maximum of three (3) subsequent semesters.