Establishing an Open Access Repository for Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) faculty at the George Washington University (GW) decided to create a digital DNP Project Repository for our students in 2016 based on the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) 2015 recommendations to do so. We describe the two-year process during which the DNP faculty and the GW librarians at our Health Sciences Library collaborated to create the DNP project repository. This article contains important information that was learned about digital institutional repositories, the criteria used in deciding to make the GW library's Health Sciences Research Commons the home for the repository, along with questions and concerns that arose during the process. Our library internally collaborated to customize the digital collection to meet the needs of DNP students and their project teams. Development included creating the URL for the collection, customizing digital metadata fields, developing submission forms and guidelines, and adding embargo options for projects. A pilot collection of six DNP projects was completed in 2017; and in 2018, the first cohort of 34 students submitted their projects to our repository. Outcomes are reported of the repository launch, lessons learned, and repository submission experiences of two DNP students. We believe our journey may guide others.