Clinical Requirements

Students admitted to the Post-Master’s DNP program are required to complete a total of 1,000 clinical hours under the supervision of a clinical preceptor. This change in our program requirements is due to recent DNP program requirement changes from the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), the organization that accredits our DNP program.

Students admitted beginning in Fall 2015 will be able to apply all of the preceptor-supervised clinical hours earned during their Master’s nursing program toward this 1,000 hours requirement.

To facilitate this process, students will need to request from their Master’s degree-granting academic institution completion of the Clinical Hours Verification Form (PDF) to verifying the number of preceptor-supervised clinical hours earned during completion of the Master’s degree.

The academic institution will need to submit this completed form to the UMN School of Nursing (gophernursing@umn.edu) for inclusion in the application for admission.  The clinical hour verification form must be received by the School of Nursing for the application to be considered complete and move forward with admission consideration.

Students will work with their DNP program advisor and the DNP Program Director to choose various clinical course options in the DNP program to fulfill their clinical requirement.

Post-master’s clinical courses 

Post-Master’s clinical courses are designed to meet the needs of experienced advanced nursing professionals and apply knowledge and skills learned in the DNP Program’s didactic courses or provide practice-expanding clinical opportunities.

Clinical course options include systems-level clinical experiences in Interprofessional quality improvement, implementation of evidence-based practice, health innovation and leadership, health policy, Interprofessional team-based care, informatics and data mining, and integrative health modalities (e.g. Reiki, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, etc.).

Clinical courses are 1 to 2 credits each (1 credit = 120 hours; 2 credits = 240 hours).

Post-Master's DNP Practicum Opportunities (PDF)