Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) - Advanced Practice DNP

Program Overview

The University of Central Florida's Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program prepares nurses for advanced practice roles. The program emphasizes evidence-based practice, leadership, and the analysis of complex clinical situations and practice systems. Graduates develop skills in diagnostic reasoning, clinical judgment, and the implementation and evaluation of comprehensive care models. The program may be completed fully online, offering flexibility for working professionals.

Program Outline

The program emphasizes a strong scientific foundation for practice, flexibility, evidence-based practice, leadership, organizational analysis, and the analysis of the DNP Project.

Program Objectives:

The DNP program aims to prepare graduates to:

• Critically analyze complex clinical situations and practice systems and disseminate findings.
• Assume leadership roles in the development of clinical practice models, health policy, and standards of care.
• Develop practice models that support diagnostic reasoning skills and clinical judgment through the use of evidence-based practice.
• Analyze social, economic, political, epidemiological, and other scientific data to improve individual, aggregate, and population health.
• Design, implement, and evaluate comprehensive care models for populations and/or systems and disseminate findings.

Program Description:

The DNP program requires a minimum of 72 credit hours beyond the Bachelor's Degree. Students complete 27 credit hours of core courses, 9 credit hours of electives, and 6 credit hours of a DNP Project. The total clinical hours (including those accrued in the MSN degree) will be 1000. The core courses are designed to incorporate the AACN competencies for DNP graduates.

Other:

• The program incorporates "The Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice" (American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), 2006) and "Advanced-level Nursing Sub-competencies" described in the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s "The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing education" (AACN, 2021).
• The Doctoral Essentials address the following:
• Scientific underpinning for practice
• Organizational and systems leadership for quality improvement and systems thinking
• Clinical scholarship and analytical methods for evidence-based practice
• Health care policy for advocacy in health care
• Inter-professional collaboration for improving patient and population health outcomes
• Clinical prevention and population health for improving the nation's health
• Advanced nursing practice
• The program may be completed fully online, although not all elective options or program prerequisites may be offered online.
• Newly admitted students choosing to complete this program exclusively via UCF online classes may enroll with a reduction in campus-based fees.