The UCA School of Nursing DNP program is accredited by Commission of Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). The curriculum is guided by the 2021 American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) publication, The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education. The curriculum is evaluated every five years.
Doctor of Nursing Practice Degree Requirements
The Doctor of Nursing Practice degree requires 33-36 credit hours and documentation of 1000 post baccalaureate clinical practice hours. The program is 100% online.
Required PM-DNP Courses
NURS 7105 Introduction to DNP Project
NURS 6390 Statistical Methods and Data Analysis for Advanced Nursing Practice
NURS 6332 Health Policy for Advanced Nursing Practice
NURS 6360 Philosophical and Theoretical Foundations for Advanced Nursing Practice
NURS 7V15 DNP Clinical Internship [Note 1]
NURS 7110 DNP Project Planning [Note 2]
NURS 7120 DNP Project [total of two credit hours required]
NURS 7315 Healthcare Quality and Organizational Systems for Advanced Nursing Practice
NURS 7320 Healthcare Economics and Finance for Advanced Nursing Practice
NURS 7325 Ethics for Advanced Nursing Practice
NURS 7330 Healthcare Informatics for Advanced Nursing Practice
NURS 7340 Leadership Principles for Advanced Nursing Practice
NURS 7350 Translational Research Methods for Advanced Nursing Practice
NURS 7365 Population Health and Epidemiology for Advanced Nursing Practice
Note 1
All students must complete a minimum of 1,000 clinical practice hours post-BSN to complete the DNP. The curriculum provides 360 fieldwork clinical practice hours embedded in course work. Students are given credit for clinical practice hours that were obtained in the MSN degree. Students who require more clinical practice hours to meet the 1,000 hour requirement may enroll in NURS 7V15 DNP Clinical Internship. The DNP Clinical Internship course is a variable-credit course that students can begin taking as early as their second semester of study. For each credit hour of DNP Clinical Internship, students spend 90 clock hours engaging in clinical practice activities that are aimed at meeting DNP Essential Competencies. Also, students with accepted transfer course credit for courses that have fieldwork hours will need to complete the designated fieldwork hours by enrolling in one credit hour of NURS 7V15 DNP Internship.
Note 2
Students who are not enrolled in NURS 7V15 are required to take a minimum of one credit hour of NURS 7110 DNP Project Planning beginning the spring semester following the completion of course NURS 7350 Translational Research
For a complete list of course descriptions, please refer to the Graduate Bulletin.
