Doctor of Nursing Practice Program Capacity Building and Scalability: Improving the Capstone Experience.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Doctoral Studies
• Evidence-Based Practice

Background:

• Doctoral nursing education requires innovative approaches to meet diverse student needs.
• Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) projects demand substantial resources and must accommodate varied learner backgrounds.
• Integrating scholarly projects with clinical settings is crucial for program scalability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe an innovative course series and capstone redesign for Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) students.
• To prepare DNP students for scholarly practice evaluation and project execution.
• To enhance the scalability and resource utilization of DNP programs by linking projects to clinical settings.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of an innovative course series progression for scholarly practice evaluation.
• Reformatting capstone and residency courses to focus on evaluation models and systems of care.
• Encouraging students to critically evaluate practice in a standardized format for scholarly inquiry.

Main Results:

• Curricular enhancements prioritize patient access, safety, and quality from early in doctoral education.
• The DNP program increased scalability by linking scholarly projects to clinical settings.
• Improved student access to learning experiences and continued project development within clinical environments.

Conclusions:

• Linking DNP scholarly projects to clinical settings enhances program scalability and resource efficiency.
• This approach fosters capacity building within both academic and clinical environments.
• Innovations in nursing education are essential for preparing DNP graduates to lead practice change and quality improvement.