Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Program

General Information

The Elaine Marieb College of Nursing (EMCON) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst offers the Doctor in Nursing Practice (DNP) degree to prepare advanced practice nurses at the highest level. This professional nursing preparation will include advanced coursework in leadership, research translation, and clinical knowledge and skills. This degree emphasizes the evolving nursing roles in an increasingly complex health care system, new scientific knowledge, and ongoing concerns about the quality and outcomes of patient care. Applicants to the DNP program will choose either the Family Nurse Practitioner, Public Health Nurse Leader, or Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner tracks. Applicants who are already Advanced Practice Nurses (APRNs) will complete the core courses of the DNP program (DNP Completion). 

Objectives of the Doctor of Nursing Practice Program 

This program will prepare students to:

• Engage in nursing practice using advanced knowledge from nursing and related disciplines to improve health outcomes.
• Provide leadership and collaborate with leaders in other professions for change in systems of care.
• Synthesize and translate evidence from nursing and other disciplines to manage complex health problems.
• Supply culturally proficient care to respond to health disparities and societal needs.

Faculty Advisors

All Marieb College of Nursing faculty members who have graduate faculty status are potential advisors for DNP students. Students will be assigned an advisor that is congruent with their area of interest whenever possible. DNP students are expected to meet regularly with their advisors to outline their plan of study, discuss academic coursework, and to prepare for the comprehensive exam and capstone scholarly project.

Core Competencies and Course Requirements

The EMCON DNP utilizes the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN, 2021) Essentials of Nursing Practice. The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education provides a framework for preparing individuals as members of the discipline of nursing, reflecting expectations across the trajectory of nursing education and applied experience. These Essentials document outlines and define the ten foundational domains (shown below) that represent the essence of professional nursing practice. The specialized content, as defined by specialty organizations, complements the areas of core content defined by the Essentials and constitutes the major component of DNP programs: 

• Domain I: Knowledge for Nursing Practice
• Domain II: Person-Centered Care
• Domain III: Population Health
• Domain IV: Scholarship for Nursing Discipline
• Domain V: Quality & Safety
• Domain VI: Interprofessional Partnerships
• Domain VII: Systems-based Practice
• Domain VIII: Informatics and Healthcare Technologies
• Domain IX: Professionalism
• Domain X: Personal, Professional and Leadership Development

The College of Nursing also supplements the AACN Essentials with Essentials from the National Organization for Nurse Practitioner Faculty (NONPF, 2022) for FNP & PMHNP tracks, and the 2022 ANA Scope and Standards of Practice for Public Health Nursing (for the PHNL track).  We prepare APRNs for certification through either ANCC or AANP.

Course Requirements

The DNP Program requires completion of core foundation and upper-level core courses, as well as courses in either the FNP, PMHNP, or PHNL role concentration (see sample plans of study). If a student already holds a master’s APN degree, an individually tailored Plan of Study will be created based on transcript review. A post-master’s student must complete a minimum of 30 semester credits to complete the DNP degree. The final scholarly requirement of the DNP program is the DNP project, which is a requirement for graduation. 

Core Courses

All DNP students take the core courses in addition to their specialty courses (except for Post Master’s DNP Completion students who do not need specialty courses).

*Please note: The course Nursing 798W (Capstone 3) has now been absorbed into Nursing 798U and is no longer a distinct, separate course.

Course Descriptions

• N630 Research Methodology in Nursing
  Examines the use of quantitative and qualitative research methods with an emphasis on analyzing clinical problems and evaluating evidence for translation into practice (3 credits)
• N651 Nursing Ethics, Health Policy & Politics
  This course provides students with a framework for examining political and ethical issues that influence health care. Major elements of national health policy and politics will be analyzed. (3 credits)
• N701 Healthcare Quality
  This course will provide an overview of the history of quality of care, with particular attention to the evolution of quality assessment, assurance, improvement, measurement, management, finance and research (3 credits)
• N704 Health Disparities and Social Justice
  Using group discussion, research, and community-focused assignments, students will gain knowledge regarding the historical dimensions leading to health disparities, social injustice, and concepts of marginalization, poverty, race, class, and gender. (3 credits)
• N715 Intermediate Statistics: Computer Application and Analysis of Data
  This course focuses on statistical techniques frequently used in health sciences research and on the use of analytic software to create, manage and analyze data on personal computers (3 credits)
• N725 Leadership in Health Systems
  The course focuses on leadership theory, research, development, and practical competencies of contemporary leaders of health care systems. (3 credits)
• N735 Informatics for Nursing Practice
  This course provides students with essential knowledge and skills to utilize information systems/technology to improve and transform healthcare systems and provide leadership within healthcare systems and/or academic settings. (3 credits)

All DNP Students: DNP Final Project Description

The DNP Project begins with the student selecting a problem arising from clinical or public health practice and aims to bridge the gap between theory and clinical practice. Graduates of the DNP program are uniquely prepared to help close the research-practice gap by  developing, tailoring, implementing, and evaluating projects and programs based on theoretical frameworks and evidence.  This process includes  disseminating the results and delivering the intended benefits of evidence to specific groups, populations or communities. Graduates are then able to deliver the intended benefit of the research evidence to the group, population, or community. The DNP project gives students a supervised opportunity to independently undertake this research translation process.

The problem under study in the DNP project must represent an identified need, as evidenced by a needs assessment, gap analysis, community assessment, or other method of needs identification. For the project to be most effective, the stakeholders present at the site must agree that there is a need for the project and must be consulted and involved throughout the project. Indeed, the project may be done in partnership with the clinical agency, health department, College, church, government or community agency, voluntary organization, or community group (site will be dependent on the specific track or concentration the student is in).

The project literature review must support the need for the project and suggest an evidence base for the project. The literature review should include research studies on innovations that can be synthesized and developed into a program to address the practice problem. Further, the student must be seen as a credible authority on both the problem and the research-based innovation/program by stakeholders in the setting, thus, the focus of the problem and innovation/program must be on advanced nursing practice in the student’s specialty area. Finally, the student must be sufficiently familiar with the specific site in which the program will be implemented to tailor the program to the site’s organization, resources, and constraints. 

Project sites will vary depending on the track: 

• FNP: Students who are in the FNP track work directly with their course faculty to identify a project site and project mentor in an outpatient or primary care setting. Acute care hospitals / departments / units are not acceptable.
• Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP): Most students complete projects in psychiatric community sites or psychiatric hospitals.
• Post-Masters: Students often complete their work in outpatient, primary care, community, or other similar settings.
• Public Health Nurse Leader: PHNL students complete projects in a variety of public health settings. PHNL students can choose to complete their projects in public health departments, community groups, federal agencies, faith based organizations, university health departments, homecare agencies, or similar settings. Acute care hospitals / departments or units are not acceptable.

DNP Project Team 

For the DNP Project, students will identify an appropriate project site mentor in Capstone 1 and are assigned by the DNP Director to a Marieb College of Nursing faculty member to serve as project chair at the end of Capstone 2. Students are expected to work closely with their capstone course faculty, assigned faculty member/chair and project site mentor, throughout the process of completing the DNP project. Students must send their proposal to the assigned faculty member/chair after Capstone 2 for approval. Students should anticipate the need for multiple drafts before final approval of the proposal and final DNP project report. Students must also send their completed DNP project write/evaluation up to their assigned faculty member/chair in Capstone 5 for approval prior to graduation. 

Purpose of the Team

The purpose of a project team is to support the student as they design and implement the DNP project. Your project committee includes the faculty of the respective capstone course you are enrolled in for that semester, the site mentor, and an assigned faculty member/chair. The assigned faculty member/chair will be assigned by the end of the second DNP capstone course by the DNP Director. The DNP project entails collaboration among the DNP capstone course faculty, assigned committee member/chair, site mentor and student.   

• Student: The student is the leader of the project team. The student works closely with the capstone course faculty and assigned faculty member/chair, along with site mentor, as they identify ideas and develop, implement, and evaluate the DNP project.
• DNP project committee: The capstone course faculty member and the assigned faculty member/chair (whose interests / expertise aligns with the project topic), along with the project site mentor serve as the DNP Project committee to promote the scholarly thinking and intellectual curiosity of the student. This is accomplished through ongoing feedback to the student from capstone course faculty and the assigned faculty member/chair. The capstone course faculty member and the assigned faculty member/chair give final approval of the DNP proposal, which must be obtained before the project is implemented; they also provide approval of the final paper/project write up (which occurs in the final capstone course).  
• Project site mentor: A project mentor is someone who works at the project site and agrees to support the student and help to navigate the site's system. The student will be asked to identify a project mentor at the agency's site and give the name and contact information to the faculty teaching the first capstone course.  
• Advisor: Upon admission to the DNP program, each student is assigned an advisor. This individual is listed in Spire. The advisor is there to answer general questions about the DNP program. The advisor may or may not be involved with the student’s DNP capstone project.

Completion Process

In preparation for the DNP project, students are assigned a Marieb College of Nursing faculty member chair and will identify an appropriate project site mentor. Students are expected to work closely with their capstone course, faculty project chair, and project site mentor   throughout the process of completing the DNP project. Students should anticipate the need for multiple drafts before final approval of the proposal and final DNP project report.

The project site mentor must approve the proposal, the work, and final write-up along with the faculty members. A project site mentor can be a nurse practitioner, physician, and/or a public health leader within the facility or community depending on the DNP track the student is in and where the project will be actualized. The designated project site mentor may be from anywhere in the world, so long as they have consented to the position on the committee and expressed a willingness to guide from a distance. The DNP Project Chair has final approval authority on the Project.  

A student must receive a grade of C or above to pass the DNP Project requirement. Upon final completion and approval, the student should submit the DNP FORM, “Approval of DNP Scholarly Project” to the DNP office and their course instructor once the final approval is given.   

The project culminates in the submission of a final report that summarizes the project’s goals, methodology, results, and conclusions.   

The final requirement also includes posting your DNP Project on ScholarWorks on the UMass Amherst Library site Instructions are provided to the student on how to do this within the final capstone course shell. All DNP projects must be presented to a professional audience either at Scholarship Day, at the clinical site, or a professional conference. 

Protection of Human Subjects

Students must complete the “Human Subjects Determination” form through the Kuali website. This occurs once the proposal is written and considered “ready” for this step in the project process by the course faculty. The UMass Amherst Institutional Review Board (IRB) will determine whether the project needs additional IRB review and notify the student with a memorandum of determination via email.

NOTE: Students may NOT begin data collection prior to receiving IRB determination.

Final Project Course Descriptions

• N742: Defining Evidence for Problems and Solutions - 3 credits
  This course focuses on discussions and assignments regarding health intervention planning, implementation, and evaluation for the refinement and approval of the DNP Project proposal. Evaluating the evidence (literature review) and completing a gap analysis are fundamental aspects of this course. Students need to secure a site, site mentor, identify a topic for the proposal in this course and complete a literature review of the topic of interest.
• N798U: Evidence Based Proposal Development - 3 credits
  This course is the second course in the sequence of four courses for the DNP, and the first of two courses designed to concentrate students’ efforts on a community of interest (COI) / organizational assessment and analysis to refine and solidify key concepts from the literature review completed in Capstone I: Nursing 742. There are 75 project hours required for this course.  This course requires obtaining a letter of support from the proposed project site. All students are required to submit through both site IRB review (if required by the site) and UMass IRB in this course. Data collection and project implementation should not begin until after IRB approval is obtained. Students must secure a letter of support from their site, as well as IRB approval, in order to progress to the next capstone course. A student may not progress to the next capstone course without a site, site support, IRB approval and proposal approval by the capstone faculty and the assigned faculty member/chair.
• N840: DNP Project Implementation and Monitoring - 3 credits
  This course involves the actual implementation of the planned proposal. You will implement and work on your project at the designated site with your preceptor or mentor. Data collection and analysis will occur during this course. There are 100 hours of project hours required for this course.
• N898A: DNP Project Completion, Evaluation and Dissemination- 3 credits
  This course is the final course in the DNP Project sequence and culminates with an evaluation of the completed project. You will complete and evaluate your DNP project at the designated site with your preceptor / mentor. There are 75 hours of project hours required for this course.

The DNP Project focuses on the implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and dissemination of a theoretically based research translation project designed as a programmatic intervention to address a practice problem.

Successful progression depends upon completing required course work, according to the student’s plan of study, maintaining a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0, and working closely with your advisor. The advisor and student should be mindful of incomplete grades as this will inhibit progression in the DNP Program. Students whose CGPA falls below 3.0  will be in jeopardy of dismissal by the Marieb College of Nursing and the University.