The Department of Nursing has established strong clinical partnerships throughout the community to provide students with robust learning experiences to enhance didactic education. A team of staff and faculty work to grow new and develop existing partnerships to ensure students have high quality preceptors and clinical experiences.

Students in the Doctor of Nursing Practice program are required to do clinical hours preparing for the family nurse practitioners (FNP) role and associated with the DNP Scholarship Project.

Family nurse practitioners clinicals

• FNP clinical hours focus on clinicals in the outpatient, primary-care setting. Students also complete clinical hours in ob-gyn, internal medicine, pediatrics, geriatrics, and other specialty settings.
• Clinical rotations may include the following health care settings: large health care systems, community clinics, rural health, retail health, on-site health services, urgent care settings, home-based primary care, correctional health, private specialty clinics and more.
• Preceptors include certified nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, medical doctors, doctors of osteopathic medicines and physician assistants.
• Students work with faculty to help to identify preceptors for clinical rotations. This allows students to pursue clinical rotations that fit with their profession goals and personal schedules. The DNP program is a member of formal partnership and consortium groups in the metropolitan area to help improve NP student access to clinical opportunities.

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) scholarship project

The purpose is to plan, implement, and evaluate a scholarly project that can integrate all the DNP Essentials into practice (AACN, 2015). The scope of the project varies significantly depending on student interest and clinical site need. Students may complete projects in their current workplace, at a FNP clinical site, with a community-based organization, another health care organization or other faculty-approved site.

Additional references for the DNP scholarship project

• American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2006). The essentials of doctoral education for advanced nursing practice. Washington, DC: Retrieved from http://www.aacn.nche.edu/publications/position/DNPEssentials.pdf
• - American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2015). The doctor of nursing practice: Current issues and clarifying recommendations. Retrieved from https://www.pncb.org/sites/default/files/2017-02/AACN_DNP_Recommendatio…

Contact information

• Michelle Ullery, DNP Program Coordinator (Michelle.ullery@metrostate.edu)
• Kim Miles, Clinical Placement Coordinator (kim.miles@metrostate.edu)
• Corey Schmitz, Program Support (Corey.schmitz@metrostate.edu)

Interested in precepting a DNP student for NP clinical hours? Contact the DNP Program Coordinator, Michelle Ullery at Michelle.Ullery@metrostate.edu.