Program Overview

Doctor of Nursing Practice in Executive Leadership (DNP-EL)

The Doctor of Nursing Practice in Executive Leadership (DNP-EL) offers nurses with a Master's degree a dynamic, flexible program preparing them for executive leadership roles across all care delivery sites and systems. The online program, designed for current and aspiring senior leaders, focuses on evidence-based leadership and innovation and integrates experiential learning tailored to each student's interests, often within their practice setting or community.

Program Highlights

• Opportunities for interprofessional collaboration with other healthcare leaders
• Develop competencies in the new AACN (2021) essentials
• Develop skills to redesign healthcare models and delivery systems using technology to improve quality and safety and patient outcomes

Program Outcomes

Students Matriculated Summer 2025 & Onward

At the completion of the DNP-EL, the graduates will be able to:

1. Participate in activities and self-reflection that foster personal and professional wellbeing and resilience, contribute to lifelong learning, and support the development of leadership. (Domain 1)
2. Lead and integrate initiatives which drive person-and family-centered care that is culturally responsive, just, respectful, compassionate, coordinated, evidence-based, and developmentally appropriate. (Domain 2)
3. Appraise practice patterns and risk stratification to lead evidence-based initiatives that improve holistic care, collaborating in traditional and non-traditional partnerships for the improvement of equitable population health outcomes. (Domain 3)
4. Design, implement, evaluate, and disseminate scholarly inquiries that incorporate evidence appraisal, research translation, and best practices to improve outcomes. (Domain 4)
5. Design and lead quality and safety initiatives using established and emerging principles of safety and improvement science to mitigate risk of harm to patients and providers and optimize individual performance and system effectiveness. (Domain 5)
6. Lead interprofessional teams to address complex needs of the individual, families, community and population through respectful and effective communication and shared decision making. (Domain 6)
7. Analyze complex systems impacting the healthcare industry to generate strategic innovations that enhance value, access to care and cost-effectiveness. (Domain 7)
8. Leverage information and communication technologies and informatics processes in accordance with best practice and professional and regulatory standards, to analyze and compare quality metrics, impact clinical decision making, and develop knowledge to improve healthcare delivery. (Domain 8)
9. Advance core values that promote professionalism, ethical standards, accountability, integrity, empathy, civility, and a spirit of mentorship into one's advanced nursing specialty practice/role. (Domain 9)
10. Advocate for reflective practices that advance the health and well-being of self and colleagues through engagement in initiatives that support personal health, resilience, life-long learning, and leadership development. (Domain 10)

Students Matriculated Fall 2021-Spring 2025

At the completion of the DNP-EL, the graduates will be able to:

1. Integrate, translate, and apply established and evolving disciplinary nursing and transdisciplinary knowledge to form the basis for clinical judgment and innovation in nursing practice.
2. Model advanced clinical reasoning and person-centered care to improve health equity and population health outcomes across the healthcare delivery continuum.
3. Synthesize scientific knowledge to inform evidence-based practice, influence policy, improve health outcomes, and transform health care.
4. Lead within complex systems of health care through coordination of resources; through utilization of Information and communication technologies and informatics processes; and, through the application of principles of safety and improvement science to deliver safe, high quality, equitable care.
5. Build intentional interprofessional partnerships to optimize care and improve health outcomes for patients, families, communities, and other stakeholders.
6. Integrate reflective practices to model a sustainable professional nursing identity that fosters personal health, resilience, and well-being; cultivates lifelong learning; reflects nursing's characteristics and values; and supports acquisition of nursing expertise and the assertion of leadership.

Curriculum

A two or three-year plan of study provides students with flexibility in an online format. The DNP-EL program prepares nurses to become innovators, strategic planners, and expert leaders in the complex healthcare industry.

2 Year Plan of Study (32 credits)

• Year 1 - Summer Semester
  • NU725: Introduction to Executive Leadership DNP Studies (1 credit)
  • NU716: Perspectives in Community Engagement and Population Health (3 credits)
• Fall Semester
  • NU714: Healthcare Systems Safety, Quality, and Improvement Science (3 credits)
  • NU726: Trends Shaping the Future of Executive Leadership in Health Care (3 credits)
• Spring Semester
  • NU715: Leading Strategic Change in an Era of Healthcare Transformation (3 credits)
  • NU727: Innovation, Creativity and Well-Being in Health Care (3 credits)
• Year 2 - Summer Semester
  • NU702: Practice Inquiry: Designs, Methods and Analyses (3 credits)
• Fall Semester
  • NU728: Executive Leadership DNP Project and Practicum Seminar I (4 credits)
  • Elective (in consultation with academic advisor and with permission) (3 credits)
• Spring Semester
  • NU729: Executive Leadership DNP Project and Practicum Seminar II (3 credits)
  • NU713: Digital Transformation in Healthcare: Trends and Opportunities (3 credits)

3 Year Plan of Study (32 credits)

• Year 1 - Summer Semester
  • NU725: Introduction to Executive Leadership DNP Studies (1 credit)
  • NU716: Perspectives in Community Engagement and Population Health (3 credits)
• Fall Semester
  • NU714: Healthcare Systems Safety, Quality, and Improvement Science (3 credits)
• Spring Semester
  • NU715: Leading Strategic Change in an Era of Healthcare Transformation (3 credits)
• Year 2 - Summer Semester
  • Elective (in consultation with academic advisor and with permission) (3 credits)
• Fall Semester
  • NU726: Trends Shaping the Future of Executive Leadership in Health Care (3 credits)
• Spring Semester
  • NU713: Digital Transformation in Healthcare: Trends and Opportunities (3 credits)
  • NU727: Innovation, Creativity and Well-Being in Health Care (3 credits)
• Year 3 - Summer Semester
  • NU702: Practice Inquiry: Designs, Methods and Analyses (3 credits)
• Fall Semester
  • NU728: Executive Leadership DNP Project and Practicum Seminar I (4 credits)
• Spring Semester
  • NU729: Executive Leadership DNP Project and Practicum Seminar II (3 credits)