UCD School of Nursing
to offer
Doctor of Nursing Practice degree
The University of Colorado Denver will offer
a new graduate program in nursing, the Doctor of Nursing Practice, beginning
in Fall 2005.
On Feb. 24, the University of Colorado Board of Regents approved a change
in the 15-year-old Doctor of Nursing (ND) program at UCD School of Nursing.
The approved change will convert the ND to a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree.
This change was precipitated by recent recommendations from the American Association
of Colleges of Nursing to standardize the preparation and degree title for
professional practice doctorates in nursing across the United States.
The UCD School of Nursing is the first in the Rocky Mountain region to
initiate the DNP. The school is well-known for having the first Nurse Practitioner
program in the United States Its nurse practitioner specialties consistently
rank in the Top 10 by U.S. News & World Report.
“In 1990 we were innovators, one of the first in the nation to offer
a professional doctorate in nursing,” said Lauren Clark, RN, PhD, FAAN,
director of the DNP Program. “Today, we’re using this experience
as we convert to the DNP degree. While it is different from the ND, in some
ways there are similarities.”
Dramatic changes in health care in recent years have increased demands for
nurses to assume leadership roles in the delivery of complex clinical care.
Studies on the education of health professionals, patient safety, and the
nursing and faculty shortage have also contributed to the national call for
practice-focused doctoral degrees in nursing. Nurses with this degree will
help alleviate the shortage of nursing faculty in the United States.
The DNP degree will appeal to nurses with an MS or a BS degree in nursing
who are interested in a practice-focused doctorate, as well as graduates from
other fields who want to become nurses and continue into graduate study.
DNP graduates will build on nursing specialty practice and will be prepared
as leaders who will design models of health care delivery, evaluate clinical
outcomes, identify and manage health care needs of populations, and use technology
and information to transform health care systems.
The current ND program is a generalist nursing degree, similar to the MD for
physicians and the DDS for dentists. The new DNP Program will provide a seamless
transition for nurses wanting to specialize because requirements for the MS
degree will be completed as part of the DNP program. The new DNP program will
include all of the nursing specialties offered at UCD School of Nursing.
“This is an exciting change because previously, ND graduates who wanted
to specialize in a particular area of nursing had to obtain a second degree
at the master’s level,” said Patricia Moritz, RN, PhD, FAAN, dean
of the UCD School of Nursing. The school currently offers specialty areas
to prepare Nurse Practitioners and Specialists in the primary care of children,
families and adults; nurse midwifery; psychiatric-mental health; critical
and palliative care; community/public health; children with disabilities and
chronic conditions; administration; and informatics. The first DNP students
will be admitted in Fall 2005.
“We hope to attract MS-prepared advanced practice nurses who want to
expand their education as well as those BS graduates who want to pursue a
specialty with preparation at a doctoral level,” said Marlaine Smith,
RN, PhD, FAAN, associate dean for Academic Affairs. “And we’ll
continue to recruit people from other fields.”
For further information about the new DNP program, please contact the School
of Nursing at 303-315-5592 or 800-248-2344, by email at son.oasis@uchsc.edu,
or on the School’s Web site at www.uchsc.edu/nursing.
The University of Colorado Denver is one of
three campuses in the University of Colorado system. Located in Denver and
Aurora, Colo., the Center includes Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy,
and Dentistry, a Graduate School and the University of Colorado Hospital.
For more information, visit the campus Web site at www.uchsc.edu.
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