Transitioning Hospital-Based Nurse Leaders to Professional Doctorates

The collaboration for the project Transitioning Hospital-Based Nurse Leaders to the Practice Doctorate (Doctor of Nursing Practice [DNP] degree program) was initiated by Case Western Reserve University. Participating hospitals included Greenwich (CT) Hospital, Mt. Sinai Hospital (NYC), Carilion Health Care System (Roanoke, VA), Exeter Hospital (Exeter, NH), Shore Memorial Hospital (Atlantic City, NJ), and the North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System (Long Island, NY). The partnership is focused on collaboration that enhances both nursing education and practice. This DNP program for hospital-based nurse administrators and advanced practice nurses (APNs) has been offered onsite in these hospitals to strengthen evidence-based practice, thus improving the quality of healthcare delivered in the partner hospitals. The benefit to the educational institution is the enrichment of the teaching learning experience through inclusion and integration into the curriculum of content regarding current issues and challenges in healthcare delivery.