Doctor of Nursing Practice: Family Nurse Practitioner (DNP)

• Nurse practitioners have become primary care providers for millions of Americans and are poised to meet the challenge of providing comprehensive, high-quality, and cost-effective care to many more millions of people in the changing health care market. 
• We balance theory with practice. Our faculty are all practice-experienced and maintain roles as educators, administrators, and health professionals. Outside of the classroom, students benefit from immersive preceptorships in a variety of settings with diverse patient populations.
• Graduates of our program are trained as competent and compassionate clinicians who provide excellent community-based primary care to diverse, under-served, and vulnerable populations. They are equipped to provide expertise that is both innovative and evidenced based.
• The DNP curriculum reflects our philosophy of educating the whole person and is designed to foster professionalism, intellectual capacity, and respect for the dignity of all persons.

The role of the DNP not only manages complex patients but examines populations and identifies gaps in care. DNP's critically appraise and apply evidence based practice to improve healthcare delivery systems and outcomes. The DNP will lead quality improvement initiatives within various healthcare settings, including underserved communities and with vulnerable populations.

The American Association of Collegiate Nursing (AACN) and the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculty (NONPF) both support movement of all entry level advanced practice nursing education to the DNP degree by 2025.

The DNP is a bachelor’s to doctorate program designed to meet the changing needs and requirements of the profession. The program builds on the current master’s in FNP program, providing a seamless path to the DNP for currently certified FNP’s. 

In addition, the DNP program will serve as a natural and seamless pathway for post-master’s students who have completed the M.S., Family Nurse Practitioner Program to meet the educational requirements as a DNP.  

The curriculum is designed to be a rigorous sequence of courses and experiences in advanced nursing practice. Designed to be completed in approximately 33 months for students choosing to pursue the curriculum full time, the 80 credit hour DNP, Family Nurse Practitioner Program requires completion of core courses (30 credit hours), research courses (6 credit hours), advanced practice nursing courses (30 credit hours), DNP project and practicum requirements (14 credit hours), and includes over 1000 hours of post-baccalaureate supervised clinical practice. The curriculum incorporates core areas of graduate nursing, advanced practice nursing, and the DNP Essentials as espoused by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN).  

Successful graduates will hold a FNP Certificate in New York State and will be eligible to sit for the National Family Nurse Practitioner certification exam offered by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) and the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP).