What Is It All About? Examining the Sustainability of the DNP Project

Students invest many hours of work conducting root cause analyses, researching clinical practice guidelines, and implementing quality improvement projects for their Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). Often when the student graduates, however, the logistics and details of the project can fall by the wayside.

The aim of this clinical article is to begin the conversation about the sustainability of the DNP project and provide suggestions for further research and linear curriculum consideration.

A review of literature was conducted to examine the history of the DNP project and any efforts being made to support project sustainability. The PubMed database was utilized for data sourcing, including full text published in the last 10 years and English language.

Findings demonstrated variability in the DNP project across nursing programs, however, what was more apparent was the lack of research on project sustainability itself.

The DNP project serves to demonstrate the rigor and quality of the terminal practice degree in nursing, therefore, sustainability of the project would support its significance.

This article provides a starting point for research on DNP project sustainability and provides suggestions for how this could be accomplished through academic-practice partnerships and linear communication across nursing curricula.