Nursing Practice (DNP)
Designed for graduate-level students to pursue a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and complete a certification exam to become a family nurse practitioner and become eligible for licensure as an advanced practice registered nurse. The program builds upon foundational nursing knowledge and includes theoretical, evidence-based, and advanced practice knowledge and skills necessary to assume the role of an advanced practice nurse caring for diverse populations. Graduates are prepared to practice in a primary care setting where they diagnose and treat diverse patient populations across the lifespan.
We define diverse as including gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, culture, ethnic background, religion, linguistic ability, and ability.
Current Catalog Year
2024-2025
Degree
Doctor of Nursing Practice
Major / Total Credits
80 / 80
Accreditation
CCNE
Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education
Nursing Practice DNP
Minnesota State University, Mankato offers a graduate program for students interested in becoming a doctorally prepared family nurse practitioner. Students admitted into the BSN to DNP Primary Care Family Nurse Practitioner program progress full-time through the curriculum and obtain the DNP degree in 3 years. Applicants to the post-masters DNP program must be either a certified nurse practitioner, nurse anesthetist, nurse midwife, or clinical nurse specialist.
The DNP Primary Care Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) Program is designed to prepare professional nurses for advanced practice nursing. The FNP program builds upon and extends the body of knowledge and competencies of baccalaureate education in nursing. Graduate study in the School of Nursing educates nurses by creating an academic environment that fosters scholarship, critical thinking, and creativity. Graduate courses include theoretical and clinical experiences that provide the opportunity to develop knowledge and skills necessary to assume the role of an advanced practice nurse. Upon completion of this curriculum, graduates are eligible to be certified as a Family Nurse Practitioner and are then eligible to apply to the MN Board of Nursing for Advanced Practice Registered Nursing licensure. Graduates are prepared to practice in primary care settings where they diagnose and treat individuals across the life span and their families.
Program
Requirements
Common Core
* Note: NURS 675 is offered over 3 semesters for a total of 10 credits
This course offers theoretical and simulated clinical practice to develop advanced practice assessment techniques in the health and physical assessment of persons throughout their life span. Advanced concepts and approaches for the assessment of all human body systems are addressed. Documenting advanced practice assessment findings, analyzing data, deriving differential diagnoses, and utilizing advanced clinical reasoning for diverse populations are integrated to avoid diagnostic biases.
Prerequisites:
none
Course content begins with legal and ethical considerations for nurse prescribers, proceeds with presentation and analysis of core decision-making processes and advanced practices nurses use to select drugs, and finally explores clinical case management concepts involved in monitoring persons as they use prescribed drugs.
Prerequisites:
none
This course provides a foundation in advanced physiology and pathophysiology at the cellular, organic and systemic level. This foundation serves as a basis for clinical assessment and management by advanced practice nurses. Key concepts and integration of function among systems will be emphasized. The impact of psychosocial variables on physiologic function will be explored.
Prerequisites:
none
This course focuses on the development of diagnostics and procedural skills that students will use in their advanced practice nurse practitioner role. This course will build upon the knowledge and skills learned in advanced pathophysiology, pharmacology, and health assessment to facilitate the interpretation of diagnostic data and demonstrate procedural competencies necessary in the role of a nurse practitioner.
Prerequisites:
none
Concepts, theories, and models that inform advanced nursing practice are systematically examined and evaluated. Selected theories are analyzed and critiqued utilizing theory formation criteria. Students discuss application of nursing science and conceptual models to clinical area of focus and critically articulate use of theory-based practice in family and/or advanced nursing roles.
Prerequisites:
none
This course is an analysis of the complex ethical and legal issues within clinical nursing practice. Emphasis is on inquiry into ethical ways of knowing and practicing in nursing. Ethical issues related to population health and health disparities are examined.
Prerequisites:
none
Students will investigate mental health promotion, disease prevention, diagnosis and management in providing care to individuals and families to assess and detect actual and potential mental health problems.
Prerequisites:
none
This course examines family nursing theory, research, and practice within the context of a transcultural lens. Theoretical constructs and processes of family health are explored within the context of cultural humility and the influence of social determinants of health. Innovative and evidence-based nursing interventions and models of care to influence family health are constructed, applied, and evaluated.
Prerequisites:
none
This course focuses on individual, family, and population-level health promotion, risk reduction, disease prevention, and early detection through advanced nursing actions. Epidemiological principles, nursing theories, models, and determinants of health and illness are examined as a framework for guiding advanced nursing actions. This includes developing advanced nursing actions to address health concerns and diseases for culturally and ethnically diverse individuals, families, and communities.
Prerequisites:
none
Part I: Focuses on health promotion, maintenance, and restoration of health for adults and older adults. Emphasizes development of diagnostic, prescriptive, and management skills related to selected health problems to facilitate clinical decision making and delivery of advanced practice nursing.
Prerequisites:
none
Theoretical concepts, assessments, and intervention strategies related to health among culturally diverse children and adolescents are critiqued. Health promotion/protection and nursing management of acute and selected chronic health problems of the child and adolescent are addressed.
Prerequisites:
none
Management of reproductive health care needs is addressed. Health promotion and management of acute and chronic health problems are examined. The role of the health care delivery system and issues related to reproductive ethics, health policy, and research are critiqued.
Prerequisites:
none
Part II: Focuses on health promotion, maintenance, and restoration of health for adults and older adults. Emphasizes development of diagnostic, prescriptive, and management skills related to selected health problems to facilitate clinical decision making and delivery of advanced practice nursing.
Prerequisites:
none
This course focuses on the application of health promotion, risk reduction, and disease prevention in the care of individuals, families, and communities to affect population-based health. This includes the utilization of epidemiologic data, evidence-based practice, and health promotion models in optimizing health. It also includes the identification of the social determinants of health and their implications in creating advanced nursing actions to drive healthcare practice.
Prerequisites:
none
This course focuses on the structures, processes, concepts, tools, and experiences leading to quality and safety for patient care across healthcare settings. This includes the planning, implementation, and evaluation phases of professional care from an interprofessional and organizational perspective.
Prerequisites:
none
This course focuses on specialty care of children/adolescents and clients with reproductive health needs across the life spectrum. Students contract with a certified family, pediatric, and/or specialty advanced practice registered nurse (APRN), physician or physician assistant for this 100-hour clinical experience. This course encompasses wellness care of children/adolescents and management of acute/chronic child and adolescent-related health problems. Students will utilize assessment skills, develop differential diagnoses, and implement plans of care for clients with reproductive health needs, as well as provide well-woman exams and preventive care. The clinical experience focuses on the beginning development of the family nurse practitioner. NURS 642, 643, 672, 743 must be taken concurrently.
Prerequisites:
none
This course is a continuation of Child/Adolescent/Reproductive Health I, encompassing specialty care of children/adolescents and clients with reproductive health needs across the life spectrum. Students contract with a certified family, pediatric, and/or specialty advanced practice registered nurse (APRN), physician or physician assistant for this 100-hour clinical experience. This course encompasses wellness care of children/adolescents and management of acute/chronic child/adolescent-related health problems. Students utilize assessment skills, further develop differential diagnoses, and implement plans of care for clients with reproductive health needs and provide focused well-woman exams and preventive care. The clinical experience focuses on the developing family nurse practitioner skillset. Must be taken concurrently with NURS 673.
Prerequisites:
none
Integrate advanced nursing knowledge and clinical practice skills related to the family nurse practitioner role in delivering holistic health maintenance and management of acute, chronic, and complex health concerns across the lifespan. Students must take a minimum of 3 credits at a time and the total must be undertaken within 3 consecutive terms.
Prerequisites:
NURS 552, NURS 553, NURS 554
This course focuses on the role of advanced practice nurses in organizational structure, policy, and finance to engage in independent and productive interprofessional practice. This includes strategic planning, policy development, collaboration, and evaluation to improve outcomes for healthcare delivery systems with a focus on interprofessional leadership, economic principles, and technological innovation within a culturally diverse and inclusive lens.
Prerequisites:
none
This course focuses on the knowledge and skills related to information systems and patient care technology that prepare the DNP graduate to manage individual and aggregate level information and assess and improve the effectiveness of nursing care.
Prerequisites:
none
This course focuses on transformational leadership and leading in a culturally sensible environment while utilizing change strategies, measurement of outcomes, data driven decision-making, and the business realities of leading healthcare systems. Organizational and systems leadership skills are evaluated and tested.
Prerequisites:
none
This course introduces concepts of teaching and precepting. This includes essential elements of effective teaching and learning practices. It also includes the examination of innovative teaching-learning pedagogies and creation of educational experiences that facilitate achievement of desired learner outcomes for academic nursing courses and clinical precepting APRN relationships.
Prerequisites:
none
This doctoral-level course offers an in-depth exploration of human genetics and genomics to equip advanced practice nurses with the expertise necessary to assess genetic/genomic risk for individuals and families from all cultural and ethnic backgrounds, employ diagnostic testing, and deliver educational and therapeutic interventions within the scope of their practice. Ethical, legal, social, cultural, economic, and policy implications related to genetics/genomics will be critically examined. Moreover, the course will emphasize the integration of cutting-edge research and technology within the Advanced Practice Nursing (APRN) / Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) framework.
Prerequisites:
none
Research/Methods Course(s)
This course focuses on the role of research and its application, utilization, and integration in nursing practice. Research approaches, designs, and methods are analyzed. Emphasis is placed on development of analytic skills for reading and applying research in advanced practice roles.
Prerequisites:
HLTH 675
Capstone Course
This clinical seminar focuses on collaboration of interprofessional teams and the roles of advanced practice nurses within this collaboration. Development of a framework for identifying, implementing, and evaluating a collaborative effort is emphasized.
Prerequisites:
none
This seminar and practicum course focuses on program implementation and evaluation data collection. The DNP student works with a preceptor at the clinical site applying interprofessional team leadership and informatics skills related to evidence-based clinical program implementation and management.
Prerequisites:
none
This course focuses on program evaluation and dissemination. The DNP student works with a preceptor to disseminate program outcomes and demonstrate the applicability of findings for the clinical setting and the profession.
Prerequisites:
none
Degree Plan
First Year
Concepts, theories, and models that inform advanced nursing practice are systematically examined and evaluated. Selected theories are analyzed and critiqued utilizing theory formation criteria. Students discuss application of nursing science and conceptual models to clinical area of focus and critically articulate use of theory-based practice in family and/or advanced nursing roles.
Prerequisites:
none
This course is an analysis of the complex ethical and legal issues within clinical nursing practice. Emphasis is on inquiry into ethical ways of knowing and practicing in nursing. Ethical issues related to population health and health disparities are examined.
Prerequisites:
none
This course examines family nursing theory, research, and practice within the context of a transcultural lens. Theoretical constructs and processes of family health are explored within the context of cultural humility and the influence of social determinants of health. Innovative and evidence-based nursing interventions and models of care to influence family health are constructed, applied, and evaluated.
Prerequisites:
none
Second Year
This course provides a foundation in advanced physiology and pathophysiology at the cellular, organic and systemic level. This foundation serves as a basis for clinical assessment and management by advanced practice nurses. Key concepts and integration of function among systems will be emphasized. The impact of psychosocial variables on physiologic function will be explored.
Prerequisites:
none
This course focuses on the role of research and its application, utilization, and integration in nursing practice. Research approaches, designs, and methods are analyzed. Emphasis is placed on development of analytic skills for reading and applying research in advanced practice roles.
Prerequisites:
HLTH 675
This doctoral-level course offers an in-depth exploration of human genetics and genomics to equip advanced practice nurses with the expertise necessary to assess genetic/genomic risk for individuals and families from all cultural and ethnic backgrounds, employ diagnostic testing, and deliver educational and therapeutic interventions within the scope of their practice. Ethical, legal, social, cultural, economic, and policy implications related to genetics/genomics will be critically examined. Moreover, the course will emphasize the integration of cutting-edge research and technology within the Advanced Practice Nursing (APRN) / Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) framework.
Prerequisites:
none
Course content begins with legal and ethical considerations for nurse prescribers, proceeds with presentation and analysis of core decision-making processes and advanced practices nurses use to select drugs, and finally explores clinical case management concepts involved in monitoring persons as they use prescribed drugs.
Prerequisites:
none
This course focuses on individual, family, and population-level health promotion, risk reduction, disease prevention, and early detection through advanced nursing actions. Epidemiological principles, nursing theories, models, and determinants of health and illness are examined as a framework for guiding advanced nursing actions. This includes developing advanced nursing actions to address health concerns and diseases for culturally and ethnically diverse individuals, families, and communities.
Prerequisites:
none
This course focuses on transformational leadership and leading in a culturally sensible environment while utilizing change strategies, measurement of outcomes, data driven decision-making, and the business realities of leading healthcare systems. Organizational and systems leadership skills are evaluated and tested.
Prerequisites:
none
Students will investigate mental health promotion, disease prevention, diagnosis and management in providing care to individuals and families to assess and detect actual and potential mental health problems.
Prerequisites:
none
This course focuses on the structures, processes, concepts, tools, and experiences leading to quality and safety for patient care across healthcare settings. This includes the planning, implementation, and evaluation phases of professional care from an interprofessional and organizational perspective.
Prerequisites:
none
This course focuses on the knowledge and skills related to information systems and patient care technology that prepare the DNP graduate to manage individual and aggregate level information and assess and improve the effectiveness of nursing care.
Prerequisites:
none
Third Year
This course focuses on the development of diagnostics and procedural skills that students will use in their advanced practice nurse practitioner role. This course will build upon the knowledge and skills learned in advanced pathophysiology, pharmacology, and health assessment to facilitate the interpretation of diagnostic data and demonstrate procedural competencies necessary in the role of a nurse practitioner.
Prerequisites:
none
Part I: Focuses on health promotion, maintenance, and restoration of health for adults and older adults. Emphasizes development of diagnostic, prescriptive, and management skills related to selected health problems to facilitate clinical decision making and delivery of advanced practice nursing.
Prerequisites:
none
This clinical seminar focuses on collaboration of interprofessional teams and the roles of advanced practice nurses within this collaboration. Development of a framework for identifying, implementing, and evaluating a collaborative effort is emphasized.
Prerequisites:
none
This course offers theoretical and simulated clinical practice to develop advanced practice assessment techniques in the health and physical assessment of persons throughout their life span. Advanced concepts and approaches for the assessment of all human body systems are addressed. Documenting advanced practice assessment findings, analyzing data, deriving differential diagnoses, and utilizing advanced clinical reasoning for diverse populations are integrated to avoid diagnostic biases.
Prerequisites:
none
Theoretical concepts, assessments, and intervention strategies related to health among culturally diverse children and adolescents are critiqued. Health promotion/protection and nursing management of acute and selected chronic health problems of the child and adolescent are addressed.
Prerequisites:
none
Part II: Focuses on health promotion, maintenance, and restoration of health for adults and older adults. Emphasizes development of diagnostic, prescriptive, and management skills related to selected health problems to facilitate clinical decision making and delivery of advanced practice nursing.
Prerequisites:
none
This course focuses on the application of health promotion, risk reduction, and disease prevention in the care of individuals, families, and communities to affect population-based health. This includes the utilization of epidemiologic data, evidence-based practice, and health promotion models in optimizing health. It also includes the identification of the social determinants of health and their implications in creating advanced nursing actions to drive healthcare practice.
Prerequisites:
none
This seminar and practicum course focuses on program implementation and evaluation data collection. The DNP student works with a preceptor at the clinical site applying interprofessional team leadership and informatics skills related to evidence-based clinical program implementation and management.
Prerequisites:
none
Management of reproductive health care needs is addressed. Health promotion and management of acute and chronic health problems are examined. The role of the health care delivery system and issues related to reproductive ethics, health policy, and research are critiqued.
Prerequisites:
none
This course focuses on the role of advanced practice nurses in organizational structure, policy, and finance to engage in independent and productive interprofessional practice. This includes strategic planning, policy development, collaboration, and evaluation to improve outcomes for healthcare delivery systems with a focus on interprofessional leadership, economic principles, and technological innovation within a culturally diverse and inclusive lens.
Prerequisites:
none
Integrate advanced nursing knowledge and clinical practice skills related to the family nurse practitioner role in delivering holistic health maintenance and management of acute, chronic, and complex health concerns across the lifespan. Students must take a minimum of 3 credits at a time and the total must be undertaken within 3 consecutive terms.
Prerequisites:
none
Fourth Year
This course focuses on specialty care of children/adolescents and clients with reproductive health needs across the life spectrum. Students contract with a certified family, pediatric, and/or specialty advanced practice registered nurse (APRN), physician or physician assistant for this 100-hour clinical experience. This course encompasses wellness care of children/adolescents and management of acute/chronic child and adolescent-related health problems. Students will utilize assessment skills, develop differential diagnoses, and implement plans of care for clients with reproductive health needs, as well as provide well-woman exams and preventive care. The clinical experience focuses on the beginning development of the family nurse practitioner. NURS 642, 643, 672, 743 must be taken concurrently.
Prerequisites:
none
This course focuses on program evaluation and dissemination. The DNP student works with a preceptor to disseminate program outcomes and demonstrate the applicability of findings for the clinical setting and the profession.
Prerequisites:
none
Integrate advanced nursing knowledge and clinical practice skills related to the family nurse practitioner role in delivering holistic health maintenance and management of acute, chronic, and complex health concerns across the lifespan. Students must take a minimum of 3 credits at a time and the total must be undertaken within 3 consecutive terms.
Prerequisites:
none
This course is a continuation of Child/Adolescent/Reproductive Health I, encompassing specialty care of children/adolescents and clients with reproductive health needs across the life spectrum. Students contract with a certified family, pediatric, and/or specialty advanced practice registered nurse (APRN), physician or physician assistant for this 100-hour clinical experience. This course encompasses wellness care of children/adolescents and management of acute/chronic child/adolescent-related health problems. Students utilize assessment skills, further develop differential diagnoses, and implement plans of care for clients with reproductive health needs and provide focused well-woman exams and preventive care. The clinical experience focuses on the developing family nurse practitioner skillset. Must be taken concurrently with NURS 673.
Prerequisites:
none
This course introduces concepts of teaching and precepting. This includes essential elements of effective teaching and learning practices. It also includes the examination of innovative teaching-learning pedagogies and creation of educational experiences that facilitate achievement of desired learner outcomes for academic nursing courses and clinical precepting APRN relationships.
Prerequisites:
none
Integrate advanced nursing knowledge and clinical practice skills related to the family nurse practitioner role in delivering holistic health maintenance and management of acute, chronic, and complex health concerns across the lifespan. Students must take a minimum of 3 credits at a time and the total must be undertaken within 3 consecutive terms.
Prerequisites:
none
