Doctor of Nursing Practice

Program Description:

The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) is a practice-focused program that combines a scholarly approach to the discipline of nursing while advancing the profession of nursing through practice. The program is designed to prepare students for leadership roles in nursing. The program does not prepare students to obtain a state RN or APRN license. Intensive, immersive experiences inform the practice-focused DNP Capstone Project. The program requires students to complete 1000 hours of clinical practice immersion hours. Program applicants who provide evidence of clinical hours from an MSN or other nursing-specific degree have the potential to have a percentage of those hours applied to the required 1000 prior to the Project course sequence.

Degree Requirements: 42 Credits, including 1000 immersion hours

Please note: Aspen University updated its Doctor of Nursing Practice program to a new curriculum sequence in early 2023.  Students who were accepted  prior to February 14, 2023 will be required to complete different courses for degree completion.  Please refer to Aspen University's Past Catalogs to see prior program completion requirements.

Program Learning Goals:

It is intended that Graduates of the Aspen University Doctor of Nursing Practice program will learn or be able to do the following:

1. Theoretical Underpinnings: Evaluate scientific knowledge underpinnings for translation, integration, application to practice, and create a theoretical framework based on research.
2. Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Collaborate with professionals in other disciplines to improve person-centered care and population health outcomes.
3. Population Health: Establish collaborative approaches to improve equitable health improvements in both traditional and non-traditional partnerships to include the healthcare delivery continuum for patient-centered care, public health prevention and disease management of diverse populations.
4. Nursing Scholarship: Generate, translate, and disseminate evidence-based practices to improve and transform healthcare.
5. Innovation, Quality, and Safety: Improvement science focused on enhancing quality and system effectiveness.
6. Leadership: Improve the quality of nursing practice, by using leadership strategies and systems-based thinking and practice, to lead organizations to change through personal and professional development. 
7. Healthcare Technology and Informatics: Utilize data-driven decision-making to inform the delivery of safe, high-quality healthcare services supported by healthcare technology.
8. Healthcare Advocacy: Advocate for improved diverse, inclusive, and equitable healthcare and policies.
9. Personal, Professionalism, and Leadership: Life-long learning, collaborative disposition, support of nursing expertise, and assertion of leadership.

 

Academic Schedule

Courses:

DNP845	Theoretical and Scientific Underpinnings	4
DNP850	Nursing Practice, Professionalism, and Scholarship	4
DNP855	Organizational Leadership and Systems-Based Practice	4
DNP860	Evidence-Based Practice for Quality Improvement	4
DNP865	Healthcare Technologies and Informatics	4
DNP870	Health Policy, Advocacy, and Partnerships	4
DNP875	Population Health and Person-Centered Care	4
DNP880	Strategic Leadership and Business Management	4
DNP885	Strategic Planning and Financial Management	4
DNP890	DNP Practicum	4
DNP899	DNP Project Capstone	2

Additional Information

All doctoral programs at Aspen University must be completed with 10 years of the initial date of enrollment.