Nursing Practicum Manual:

Section 2.2 Program and Practicum Requirements: Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Programs

The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program builds on the student’s knowledge and expertise to strengthen advanced nursing practice, augment healthcare delivery, enhance organizational leadership, and improve patient outcomes. The program’s coursework covers a range of topics, including healthcare policy and advocacy, quality improvement, evidence-based practice, information systems/technology, advanced nursing practice, and organizational and systems leadership.

Program Learning Outcomes

At the end of the program, students will be able to:

1. Translate quality research findings to direct evidence-based nursing practice.
2. Develop organizational system changes for quality improvement in healthcare delivery in response to local and/or global community or workplace needs.
3. Apply optimal utilization of healthcare information technology across healthcare settings.
4. Advocate for the advancement of nursing and healthcare policy and standards to improve health outcomes by addressing positive social change and social policy through sharing of science-based knowledge with healthcare leaders and policy makers.
5. Demonstrate leadership to facilitate collaborative teams for improving patient and populations health outcomes.
6. Utilize advanced nursing practice knowledge to implement methodologies to improve population and community health outcomes among culturally diverse populations.
7. Establish a foundation for lifelong learning for continual elevation of contributions to the field of nursing through active involvement in professional organizations and/or other professional and community bodies.

The College of Nursing offers a range of programs, specializations, and tracks. Here is an overview of the DNP program: 

Overview of Specializations/Tracks  

The practicum experience helps students deepen their specialty area practice knowledge as they continue to enhance their leadership and nursing skills. The practicum experience and course assignments provide an opportunity for students to apply advanced level competencies and leadership skills in the development of a project for evidence-based practice at the organizational level in their chosen practice setting. During the practicum, students focus on skills at the aggregate, systems, and organizational levels; achievement of individualized learning objectives; and building and assimilating advanced specialty practice knowledge, as conceptualized by students and their preceptors and as approved by their practicum course faculty instructor. Practicum experiences and hours in DNP practicum courses do not involve direct patient care.  

Students should focus on expanding their specialty practice knowledge at the aggregate level and their socialization to roles they are interested in occupying after the completion of the DNP program, as described in the following examples:

• Students interested in being a nurse manager or leader should focus their practicum experience on organizational and system issues in healthcare.
• Students interested in informatics should focus their practicum experience on community-, system- or organization-wide information systems development and implementation in a healthcare setting.
• Students interested in being a nurse executive should focus their practicum experience at a high level of complexity within organizations by gaining experience in business skills and principles; relationship building; communication skills; and leadership in the health care environment. 
• Students interested in being an advance practice nurse should focus their practicum experience in their specialty area along with expanding their responsibilities for managing the care of individuals, families, and communities within systems or organizations. In addition, students may examine the following areas based on their area of expertise: practice trends; possible systemic changes to improve healthcare quality and safety at the organizational or policy level; or improvements in evidence-based practice settings.

The following courses are the required practicum courses for each specialization.

Students enrolled in a DNP - NP program must also review the practicum requirements for nurse practitioner courses in the Nurse Practitioner section of this manual. 

Students must schedule a phone appointment with their Student Success Advisor or Academic Coach early in their program to develop their degree plan and understand their required practicum course(s), the required prerequisite courses, practicum requirements, when they plan to take the practicum course(s), and the appropriate practicum application deadline(s). 

Students must complete the required prerequisite courses and follow the course sequence policy before being eligible or approved for a practicum course. Students will not be approved for a practicum course if the prerequisite course(s) has not been successfully completed, if the student is not currently enrolled in the prerequisite course(s), or if the student is applying for a practicum course that is against the course sequence policy. Prerequisite courses are required to be completed before practicum courses because the learning objectives must be mastered prior to proceeding to the next course. Students cannot take two practicum courses in the same term if they have not completed the required prerequisite course(s) or if it is against the course sequence policy. Students can review prerequisite courses and any course sequence policy for practicum courses in the Walden University Catalog. 

Students must go through the appeal process in Meditrek in order to appeal the ability to waive a prerequisite course for a practicum course, take a practicum course out of order, waive a course sequence policy, waive a prerequisite course to take two practicum courses during the same term, or waive the course sequence policy to take two practicum courses during the same term. The ability to appeal a policy does not guarantee an appeal will be granted. To initiate the appeal process, students must request an appeal link and code through their Advisor/Coach or by emailing the Office of Field Experience at nursingfield@mail.waldenu.edu. Upon a request from a student, the Advisor/Coach or the Field Experience Coordinator will email instructions and a code for the student to submit their appeal in Meditrek accordingly. Students must review the Appeal Policy in Section 5 of this manual.  <INTERNAL NOTE: INSERT LINK TO THE APPEAL POLICY IN SECTION 5 HERE> 

Students must identify and secure a preceptor and practicum site for their practicum experience.  Students must determine whether the preceptorship meets the requirements for the preceptor and practicum site. Students should utilize Preceptorship Prescreen Checklists for the practicum course to check if a preceptor and practicum site may be appropriate for the practicum course prior to submitting a practicum application. 

Once a preceptor and practicum site are secured, students must submit a practicum application in Meditrek to nominate the preceptor and practicum site. Instructions on the Practicum Approval Process are described in Section 4 <INTERNAL NOTE: Insert link to section 4>  in this Practicum Manual. Prior to approval, the nominated preceptor’s licensure and certification (if applicable) is reviewed and verified; the Preceptor Commitment Form is reviewed and processed; and the preceptor’s credentials and qualifications are reviewed and evaluated by the Office of Field Experience. The faculty and Program Coordinator gives final approval of preceptorship nominees. Approval of the preceptor is based on the criteria outlined in this section. 

Approval of the preceptor and practicum site must occur prior to the student starting the practicum course and completing practicum hours. Students cannot begin completing and logging practicum hours until their practicum application is fully approved in Meditrek, they are enrolled in the course, it is after the first day of the term, and they have received approval from their Walden faculty instructor to begin the practicum experience.

Some state boards of nursing have specific requirements for preceptors and practicum.  Students must review the regulations of their state board of nursing for specific practicum requirements of preceptors to ensure students are meeting their state board of nursing requirements along with Walden requirements for preceptorships. For example, Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Texas have specific requirements for Nurse Practitioner preceptors that restrict certain practitioners as preceptors for nurse practitioner courses.

Students must go through the appeal process in Meditrek to appeal any practicum policy, including policies related to practicum site and/or preceptor requirements or to appeal a closure of a practicum application. Students must review the Appeal Policy and Process for practicum in Section 5 <INTERNAL NOTE: INSERT LINK TO THE APPEAL POLICY IN SECTION 5 HERE> of this manual. 

Students should contact the Office of Field Experience with questions about requirements of preceptors and practicum sites.