Doctor of Nursing Practice

• Adult-Gerontology Acute Care NP
• Adult-Gerontology Primary Care NP
• Adult-Gerontology Primary Care NP with Oncology specialty
• Family NP
• Family NP with Emergency specialty
• Psychiatric Mental Health NP
• Psychiatric Mental Health NP with Substance Use and Addictions specialty
• Women’s Health/Gender Related NP

• Adult Gerontology CNS
• Adult Gerontology CNS with Oncology specialty
• Adult-Gerontology Acute Care CNS

• Systems Leadership

All DNP students take the same foundation of courses, including:

• Population Focused Health
• Leadership and Roles in Advanced Nursing Practice
• Social Justice and Ethics in Health Care
• Statistics for Health and Biological Sciences
• Healthcare Policy and Economics
• Evidence Translation for Advanced Clinical Practice
• DNP Project

Learn more about coursework by exploring specific tracks.

Clinical experiences provide a basis for translating evidence and theoretical knowledge into practice. At Loyola, we maintain collaborative partnerships in diverse health care settings throughout the Chicago area and beyond. Faculty design the clinical practicums and guide students as they select their clinical sites.

A minimum of 2,000 hours of clinical practice experience is required before entering the first clinical rotation in the NP and CNS tracks.

Immersion Experiences provide the unique opportunity to meet in-person with faculty and students across population and specialty tracks within the DNP program. Hosted at Loyola University Chicago's Health Sciences Campus in Maywood, the Immersion Experiences supplement coursework and foster progression, connection, and continuity within the DNP program.

The DNP program prepares nurses for advanced roles in direct care and systems leadership domains at the highest level of nursing. Their goal: to improve health care outcomes through practice-based scholarship.

Our DNP graduates have the knowledge and skills to:

• Apply integrated scientific, knowledge and clinical judgements at the highest level of professional nursing practice.
• Evaluate health care delivery approaches and health care systems, with an emphasis on quality and safety.
• Apply best evidence in approaches to client and system-centered practices.
• Apply analytic approaches and information technology in the delivery and improvement of client-centered health care and health care systems.
• Employ ethics, leadership, and advocacy concepts to advance health care quality and equity for individuals, systems, and populations.
• Implement intraprofessional and interprofessional leadership and collaboration competencies and methods.