Return to: School of Nursing: Programs/Courses
History and Philosophy
The School of Nursing (SON) opened the first Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program in Virginia in 2007 in response to the demands associated with increasing complexity in the health care system, expansion of scientific knowledge, and growing concerns regarding the quality of patient care delivery and outcomes. The UVA program, fully accredited by the Commission for Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), supports the vision for transformational change in education for professional nurses who practice at the most advanced level. The American Association for Colleges of Nursing (AACN) position statement on the DNP degree recommends that nurses practicing at the highest level should receive doctoral-level preparation. Additionally, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) statement on the Future of Nursing recommends that nurses achieve higher levels of education and training to meet the increasing demands of contemporary health care.
In the fall of 2013 a post-baccalaureate option to the DNP was initiated for students interested in obtaining Adult-Gerontology Acute Care (AGAC) Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) and/or Nurse Practitioner (NP) specialty preparation. This pathway was expanded to include Family NP, Pediatric NP, and Psychiatric-Mental Health NP in 2015 and expanded to Neonatal NP and Pediatric Acute Care NP in 2017. Students obtaining a DNP in this manner are poised to become the kind of advance practice nurses originally envisioned by the AACN; that is, that entry into advanced nursing practice would be with a DNP.
The Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice (http://www.aacn.nche.edu/dnp/pdf/essentials.pdf), developed by the AACN, provide guidelines for DNP programs and serve as a basis for accreditation of programs. The DNP program at UVA was designed to meet these Essentials.
Purpose
The purpose of the Doctor in Nursing Practice degree is to prepare DNP students to:
- Perform at the highest level of nursing practice.
- Assume leadership roles in complex healthcare delivery systems.
- Critically appraise existing literature and other evidence in a specialty area to determine and implement best practices.
- Improve patient outcomes by expanding DNP student knowledge of evidence-based practice.
Program Objectives
Objectives for the DNP program are derived from the AACN (2006) document, The Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice. At the completion of this program, students are expected to demonstrate the competencies required for the highest level of nursing practice. DNP graduates will be able to do the following:
- Integrate nursing science with knowledge from ethics, the biophysical, psychosocial, analytical, and organizational sciences as the basis for the highest level of nursing practice;
- Demonstrate organizational and systems leadership for quality improvement in healthcare systems;
- Apply clinical scholarship and analytical methods to evidence-based practice;
- Use information systems technology and patient care technology to improve and transform health care;
- Demonstrate leadership in health care policy for advocacy in health care;
- Collaborate with interprofessional and intraprofessional teams to improve patient and population health outcomes.
Admission
Admission Requirements
Post-Master’s Pathway:
Admission to the School of Nursing is competitive and based on evaluation of all portions of the application. To be considered for the DNP, applicants must submit a completed application and:
- Have an MSN degree from a nationally accredited (CCNE or NLN ACEN) school.
- Have a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale in undergraduate and graduate study.
- Demonstrate knowledge of core statistical concepts through completion of a self-study program.
- Possess an unencumbered RN license in the state where you intend to do your clinical practica. All matriculating students who are not active-duty military nurses must have a Virginia RN license before the first day of classes.
- Have a valid certification in specialty nursing (NP, CNS, etc), if applicable, by the time of entry into the program.
- Submit three satisfactory academic and professional recommendations.
- Submit a current resume or CV.
- Send official transcripts for all post-secondary study.
- Have at least 2 years of full-time RN experience in a relevant area.
- Be available for an interview if requested.
- International applicants have additional requirements.
Post-Baccalaureate Pathway:
Admission to the School of Nursing is competitive and based on evaluation of all portions of the application. To be considered for the post-baccalaureate pathway, applicants must submit a completed application and:
- Have a BSN or generalist MSN degree from a nationally accredited (CCNE or NLN ACEN) school.
- Have a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale in undergraduate and graduate study.
- Have completed an undergraduate or graduate-level course in statistics within 5 years of program start.
- Possess an unencumbered RN license in the state where you intend to do your clinical practica. All matriculating students who are not active-duty military nurses must have a Virginia RN license before the first day of classes.
- Submit three satisfactory academic and professional recommendations, one of which should be from an APRN.
- Submit a current resume or CV.
- Send official transcripts for all post-secondary study.
- Have at least 2 years of full-time RN experience in a relevant area.
- Applicants to the NNP track must have 2 years’ experience in a NICU as an RN (within the last 5 years).
- Be available for an interview if requested.
- International applicants have additional requirements.
Admission Procedure Applications are available on the SON website: https://www.nursing.virginia.edu/admissions/apply/ with a November 1 deadline.
Degree Requirements
To earn a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree, the post-MSN pathway student must successfully complete the prescribed plan of study, including the required courses described below, a minimum of 500 DNP practicum hours, and a DNP Scholarly Practice Project.
Course Load The University’s full-time minimum is 12 credits and part-time minimum for some financial aid types is 6 credits. Students who must meet the corresponding full-time or part-time status must enroll in elective(s) when the required coursework for the semester is below the minimum thresholds. DNP students conducting scholarship or research with a faculty member can seek approval from the program director for taking GNUR 9997 for a maximum of 3 credits per semester and a maximum of 6 credits over their program of study.
Length of Time in Program For the post-master’s DNP, full-time students complete the plan of study in two years and part-time students typically complete the plan of study in three years. In the post-baccalaureate pathway, full-time students typically complete in four years and part-time students typically complete in five years. An accelerated plan of study is available to full-time students who wish to complete the program in three years, pending meeting with and approval from the program director.
Note Post-master’s DNP and BSN-DNP Pathway: If you have completed a generalist MSN from UVA (such as HSM, PHNL, CNL), a credit gap analysis will be conducted upon matriculation by the program director (or delegate) to determine if the student will need to take electives to fulfill credits completed for the MSN.
