Online Post-Master’s Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Improve Patient Outcomes and Transform Healthcare

Accessible, Affordable. You Can Do This!

Transform your passion for change and expand your influence on health outcomes with Sacred Heart University’s Post-Master’s Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP).

The program builds upon master’s nursing education to prepare you for innovative, advanced practice roles in nursing leadership and clinical practice. Develop the advanced nursing knowledge to more effectively influence healthcare at multiple levels.

Designed for academically talented nurses who prefer a doctorate with a connection to clinical practice, this program is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) and regionally accredited by the New England Commission on Higher Education (NECHE).

Earn nursing’s highest academic degree, delivered in a convenient, online program that is designed for busy, full-time professionals.

Sacred Heart’s flexible, online degrees enable you to balance your personal and professional responsibilities while gaining the skills and insights to create a positive impact for organizations in business, health care, education, and more.

Esteemed Faculty

CCNE Accredited

GRE/GMAT Not Required

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A Practice-Focused Curriculum

Accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, the online Post-Master’s Doctor of Nursing Practice program consists of 14 courses and 39 credit hours. Of these 39 credit hours, 12 will focus on the selection and completion of your post-master’s DNP scholarly project.

Explore the interrelationship between policy, advocacy and ethics on clinical practice, learn to identify key processes involved in optimal patient safety, examine methods for describing disease rates and other vital statistics, and much more.

The DNP curriculum includes a scholarly practice project in which you’ll use your research to improve critical care delivery and patient outcomes.

Courses you may take include:

EBP for Healthcare Transformation

3 credit hours/30 practice hours

Course content emphasizes the conceptual understanding and application of translation science design and methods, and measurements commonly used. Application of translation science methods and design, principles of measurement, and advanced biostatistics that contribute to improved clinical decisions and outcomes are presented. The use of biostatistical techniques as well as how to apply them with confidence and interpret research findings and evidence in the literature are discussed.

Theoretical Components of Nursing Science

3 credit hours/15 practice hours

This course investigates the study of knowledge shared among members of the nursing discipline, the patterns of knowing and knowledge development, criteria for evaluating knowledge claims and the philosophy of science. The nature of theory, theory development in nursing, and significant conceptualizations of nursing are discussed. Through guided search and discussion, you’ll become knowledgeable about the utilization of theory to guide practice.

Ethics and Scholarship

3 credit hours/30 practice hours

This course addresses the responsibilities and activities of a DNP-prepared nurse around health policy, ethics, and equity, ethical imperatives and implications. You’ll address the responsible conduct of research, scientific freedom and social responsibility, collaboration and negotiation, interdisciplinary research, policy and advocacy work. You’ll also analyze and evaluate philosophical and empirical research in health care policy, ethics, and equity, with consideration of human diversity and vulnerability, with an emphasis on future directions. You’ll complete CITI training in this course.

Quality Improvement through System Leadership through Disruptive Innovation

3 credit hours/30 practice hours

This theory course reviews doctoral level practice scholarship and the principles of evidence-based practice with the goal of supporting engagement and innovation through application of translation science. You’ll employ theory, concept analysis and models for change as they parse out practice gaps and support them with appropriate methods using critical analysis and based on clinical expertise, best current evidence, patient values/preferences/goals, and available resources.

Why Online Learning is Right for You

The advantages of online learning are obvious – you don’t have to pause your career or rearrange your life to earn the degree you need to take your career to the next level. Another key factor is fit – making sure a school feels right to you. Sacred Heart’s Center for Career & Professional Development will welcome you as if you had just walked through the door here in Fairfield. With an exclusive, online recruiting system of 10,000+ employers, one-on-one career counseling, resume workshops, and an active alumni network of more than 35,000, you can rest assured knowing that our campus reaches wherever you are.

Unlock Multiple Opportunities

Facing a rapid expansion of knowledge, increased complexity of patient care and shortages in personnel, leaders who can navigate a changing health care environment will find high demand throughout the industry. Maximize your career opportunities in advanced clinical practice and executive health care leadership with the online Post Masters DNP program.

Average Salaries for Professionals with DNPs

  • Director of Nursing $153,9961
  • Executive VP of Healthcare $157,3562
  • Nurse practitioner $121,0494

You Belong with SHU!

Our mission to prepare students for lives of professional success and personal and spiritual growth excludes no one. And it’s because of that mission — and the spirited way we live it — that students of different faiths, ethnicities, and socio-economic backgrounds have made SHU the launching pad for their dreams and ambitions.

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Sources

  1. “Nursing Director Salary in the United States,” Salary.com. Retrieved November 30, 2021, from https://www.salary.com.
  2. “Vice President Healthcare Salaries,” Glassdoor.com. Retrieved November 30, 2021, from https://www.glassdoor.com.
  3. “Nurse Practitioner Salaries,” Glassdoor.com. Retrieved November 30, 2021, from https://www.glassdoor.com.