School of Nursing and Health Professions

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Master’s to DNP Program

Executive Emphasis

The Master’s to DNP Executive Emphasis is designed for students to remain in active professional practice while gaining the knowledge, skills, and abilities to lead cross-professional teams in the improvement and provision of informed quality health care. The 34-credit Master’s to DNP Executive Emphasis is offered 100% online and may be completed within 12 months of full-time study.

This DNP degree path is designed for registered nurses involved in an advanced nursing practice role including but not limited to clinical nurse specialist, nurse practitioner, nurse midwife, nurse anesthetist, public health practitioner, nurse executive, nurse informatician, and health policy analyst.  A master’s degree with a nursing emphasis, or Bachelor of Science (BSN) prepared registered nurses with a master’s degree in business administration (MBA), health care administration (MHA) or public health (MPH), is required for acceptance into the Master’s to DNP Emphasis.

The robust curriculum of the Master’s to DNP Executive Emphasis includes graduate nursing core courses and business concentration courses that focus on building knowledge in organizational leadership and management. Students will complete 672 leadership practicum and DNP Scholarly Project hours. Clinical hours obtained as part of the master’s degree may be applied to the DNP program to obtain the minimum of 1000 practice hours required for the DNP degree. For BSN prepared nurses with a master’s degree outside of nursing, additional credits may be built into the Plan of Study to reach the 1,000-hour requirement of academically supervised direct-care practice hours to award the DNP degree.