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The Purdue University School of Nursing Doctor of Nursing Practice Program has been approved as the 10th such program in the nation. The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) at Purdue University delivers an innovative curriculum from post-baccalaureate to doctorate, emphasizing healthcare engineering and interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty, hospitals, community leaders, and policy makers. This DNP program is uniquely situated to provide leadership in solving complex clinical problems through its partnership with the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering, the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, the Purdue University Homeland Security Institute, and the Center on Aging and the Life Course.

The program of study centers on knowledge and skill building in the areas of scholarly practice, practice improvement, innovation and testing of care delivery models, evaluation of health outcomes, health policy, leadership in healthcare delivery and quality improvement, and clinical expertise for advanced nursing education.

The DNP allows for three types of prospective students: post-baccalaureate RNs, current MS in nursing students, and advanced practice nurses who have completed their MS degrees. The post-baccalaureate program maintains its current Adult Nurse Practitioner program and its developing Pediatric Nurse Practitioner program. This existing MS curriculum, which totals 46-49 credit hours, incorporates the AACN's (1996) recommended thematic areas of Graduate Nursing Core, Advanced Practice Nursing Core, and Specialty Core. These hours are added to 37 credit hours in the DNP to total 83 post-baccalaureate semester credit hours. Included are 630 hours of supervised clinical preceptorship (MS program) and an 896-hour residency (DNP program) for a total of 1,526 hours of supervised clinical practice, a health policy residency, and cognate residencies.

Unique features of the Purdue DNP nursing program include:

• Purdue University/West Lafayette Interdisciplinary Collaborators: Health Sciences, Health and Kinesiology, Pharmacy, Gerontology, Health Communication, Krannert School of Management, Computer Technology, Homeland Security, and the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering. This collaboration offers many opportunities for innovative projects.
• Implementation of collaborative practice team education and internships in which DNP students, engineering graduate students, and others share coursework and work together on major internship experiences that research and implement evidence-based practice.
• Advanced information technology and Computer Sciences to improve quality of healthcare delivery systems.
• Access to multidisciplinary faculty and researchers in specified areas of clinical research.
• Global perspective offered through the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center affiliation with the School of Nursing and the Nursing Students Without Borders clinical projects in Honduras, Nicaragua, and Mexico.
• Clinical preceptorship with multidisciplinary teams caring for underserved populations in rural and urban healthcare settings.
• Clinical preceptorship in culturally diverse and underserved settings including local (Nurse-managed Family Health Clinic of Carroll County, with a 27% Hispanic population), national (Navajo Nation in Kayenta, Arizona) and international (Nursing Students Without Borders projects in Mexico, the Brigada de Saluda project in Honduras, and the World Health Organization Collaborating Center affiliation).
• Strategic leadership opportunities in four of the School of Nursing's nurse-managed clinics as well as HMO's and local/regional healthcare facilities.
• Opportunity to tailor cognate courses in areas of sub-specialization such as rural health, pharmacology, practice design and management, or public health/homeland security.
• Sequential curriculum design, post-baccalaureate to DNP, emphasizing health promotion, disease prevention, chronic disease management, and evidence-based practice.
• Flexibility of leaving the program after the master's degree is completed and re-entry for the last two years at a later date.
• Opportunity for part-time study, which allows students to maintain professional employment while pursuing an advanced degree.

For more information, please contact Jenny Franklin at jfranklin@purdue.edu or 765-494-9248.

DNP Program Goals

Upon successful completion of the DNP, graduates will be able to:

1. Evaluate systems responses to health and illness as a basis for the promotion, restoration, and maintenance of health and functional abilities and the prevention of illness.
2. Integrate advanced knowledge of nursing theories, related sciences and humanities, and methods of inquiry in the care of rural and urban populations.
3. Design quality, cost-effective nursing interventions based on the knowledge of interrelationships among person, environment, health, and nursing.
4. Measure outcomes to evaluate nursing and health systems in rural and urban settings.
5. Demonstrate role competence as a Doctor of Nursing Practice.
6. Design systems to ensure safe passage for patients.
7. Translate research to support evidence-based practice for diverse populations.
8. Initiate changes in the healthcare system through the design and implementation of health policies that strengthen the healthcare delivery system.
9. Use systems engineering concepts to prevent and solve complex healthcare delivery problems.