Module Components

• Overview
• Assignments

Topics

• DNP PROJECTS
• DNP PROJECT COURSES
• MAP-IT
• DNP PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOL

NDNP 810 - DNP Project Identification

Module 1: Mobilize the DNP Project

DNP PROJECTS

According to AACN’s Essentials of Doctoral Education of Advanced Nursing Practice, “Doctoral education, whether practice or research, is distinguished by the completion of a specific project that demonstrates synthesis of the student’s work and lays the groundwork for future scholarship."

AACN Guidelines for DNP Projects

• The DNP Project should be the same for all students and include planning, implementation, and evaluation components.
• As an outcome of the program, students must have the opportunity to integrate all AACN DNP Essentials into practice. However, all eight Essentials do not have to be demonstrated in the DNP Project.
• DNP project must include a plan for sustainability (e.g. financial, systems or political realities, not only theoretical abstractions).

Source: AACN Report from the Task Force on the Implementation of the DNP, 2015

QUALITY IMPROVEMENT

All DNP projects at UMSON must consist of some form of quality improvement (QI). QI is defined as “the combined and unceasing efforts of everyone – health care professionals, patients and their families, researchers, administrators, payers, planners, educators – to make changes that will lead to better patient outcomes, better system performance, and better professional development”

Source: Ogrinc, G., Nelson, W.A., Adams, S.M., & O’Hara, A.E. (2013). An instrument to differentiate between clinical research and quality improvement. IRB Ethics & Human Research 35(5), pp. 4-5.

Steps in QI Projects:

1. Understand and summarize the current evidence related to the practice problem – make the case for why the change is needed.
2. Assess the current practice to identify gaps (communication, knowledge, workflow, etc.).
3. Utilize an Implementation Science Theoretical Framework, QI Improvement Science methods, and QI Process Models to create a plan for implementation of a practice change to address these gaps.
4. Implement, monitor, and revise plan as needed.
5. Evaluate and disseminate findings including recommendations for sustainability and possibly spread.