Program Overview
College of Natural and Health Science
General Doctoral Degree Admission Requirements
View delivery options, start terms and admission requirements.
Director: Melissa Henry, Ph.D.
Location: Gunter 3080
Telephone: 970.351.2293
Fax: 970.351.1707
Website: www.unco.edu/nhs/nursing/
The Doctor of Nursing Practice Post Master's concentration is designed for clinicians with an APRN certification. Graduates of the Doctor of Nursing Practice program will be prepared as clinical experts with a focus on the critical thinking, leadership and political policy skills needed to advocate and create changes in healthcare practice at the individual, population and organizational systems levels.
The Doctor of Nursing Practice prepares expert clinicians for advanced practice roles in hospitals, primary care clinics, specialty settings such as long term care facilities, and virtually any area they wish to practice within the healthcare industry. These highly skilled practitioners will be the leaders in healthcare delivery and care management.
Specific exceptions to the Graduate School requirements for doctoral degrees have been approved. Due to the clinical focus of this degree, rigorous academic standards are maintained throughout the program. To earn the Nursing DNP degree, students will be required to complete a DNP Scholarly Project instead of a doctoral dissertation. DNP students must complete the following as a part of the requirements for the DNP degree: a DNP Scholarly Project Proposal and formal Final Defense of the completed DNP Scholarly Project.
Degree Requirements — 44 Credits
A minimum grade of ‘B’ or better or satisfactory in all nursing courses must be earned.
DNP Major Core Courses — 17 hours
| NURS 618 | Epidemiology in Advance Nursing Practice | 3 |
| NURS 658 | Applied Nursing Genomics | 3 |
| NURS 668 | Population Centered Health Care | 3 |
| NURS 678 | Professional Practice and Healthcare Finance Seminar | 3 |
| NURS 700 | Advanced Nursing Theory | 2 |
| NURS 707 | Leadership in Health Policy | 3 |
Translational Research Core — 15 hours
| NURS 616 | Leadership in the Measurement of Clinical Outcomes for Advanced Nursing Practice | 3 |
| NURS 725 | Translational Research Methods | 3 |
| NURS 726 | Introduction to the DNP Scholarly Project | 3 |
| NURS 727 | DNP Scholarly Project Proposal Development and Defense | 3 |
| NURS 798 | DNP Scholarly Project | 1-3 |
Electives - 12 credits
12 credits of electives are required. Students may bundle into a graduate certificate of their choice, based on interest and approval by their faculty advisor. Eligible electives may include graduate level courses (500 - 700) offered through nursing (NURS), the CO School of Public Health, and Montfort College of Business.
The combined clinical hours from the masters APRN and the DNP must equal a minimum of 1000 hours. The masters APRN program clinical hours must be at a minimum equal to 750 clock hours. Any deficit in hours will be attained through the NURS 685 DNP Practicum course as determined by the DNP Program Coordinator and may alter the time to degree completion. Compliance requirements for clinical placements must also be met.