Still Accepting applications for Summer and Fall sessions! 

Fall Session Early Action Deadline June 1st, 2013
Fall Session Regular Deadline August 1st, 2013

The Online Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program is designed to prepare leaders for the nursing profession who have expertise in advanced nursing specialty practice. This program is consistent with the mission of Gonzaga University and the overall mission of the Department of Nursing, which is to prepare nurses for leadership in the service of others. Our online program offers students the flexibility to achieve their education goals while still balancing their careers, family, and volunteer activities.

DNP Quick Facts:

• Minimum 30 credits

• Spring, fall, and summer sessions

• One required and two optional short on-campus immersions in Spokane, WA

Why Gonzaga Nursing?

• More than 30 years of proficiency in delivering nursing education at a distance ensures that Gonzaga online nursing students benefit from an academically excellent curriculum, student services that address the unique needs of students at a distance, and a faculty experienced in being online students and teaching online students.

• Gonzaga nursing faculty walks the talk. All nurse practitioner faculty still actively work in health care and provide students access to current health care policy issues, evolving trends, and real-world challenges facing the industry.

• Gonzaga online nursing students experience the subtle, yet intentional infusion of the Jesuit mission of men and women for others. This humanistic approach creates a community that encourages an exchange of knowledge with and among each other—the faculty, the students, and the communities in which they live and work to impact change.

• Graduates of Gonzaga’s DNP program are prepared to engage in systems thinking to solve complex problems, translate evidence to improve health care practices and population health, lead quality improvement and change initiatives, and demonstrate effective intraprofessional collaboration.


Online Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Program Details:

• This online program is available to registered nurses who have earned a master's degree in nursing, specifically nurse practitioners and health system leaders/nurse administrators.

• The Doctor of Nursing Practice courses are offered online in the fall, spring, and summer sessions.

• The program requires one on-campus immersion that takes place during the student's first semester. The immersion is a 2-3 day orientation to the program and includes a discussion of expectations for practicum, library resources, the scholarly project, composition of the Scholarly Project Committee, Institutional Review Board requirements, the proposal defense, and other topics. The student has the option of presenting his or her scholarly project proposal defense to faculty and students either in person (requiring a second trip to campus) or electronically.

• The post-master's DNP requires the completion of a minimum of 30 credit hours. The number of practicum hours that each student must complete is individualized based on the number completed in the student's MSN program so that each student meets the required 1,000 practicum hours by program completion (including practicum hours from the student's MSN program). The student must complete a minimum of 360 practicum hours, but it could be more depending on the number completed in the student's master's program.

• Students may transfer up to 6 credits of comparable graduate level coursework from another doctoral program at the discretion of the nursing faculty.