The Doctor of Nursing Practice

The recognition of nursing's contributions to initiatives that improve health care and its leadership role in many of these initiatives led the American Association of Colleges of Nursing to propose the doctor of nursing practice (DNP). The DNP is a practice-focused doctoral program that prepares nurses with clinical, organizational, economic, and leadership skills. Such educational preparation goes beyond the clinical expert role of the advanced practice nurse, allowing the DNP not only to critique nursing research and other clinical scientific findings, but also to design programs of care delivery that are locally relevant, are economically feasible, and have the potential to significantly impact health care outcomes.