Plan of Study

UMass Boston MS-DNP Curriculum

The Basics

The Post Master’s DNP Program is a 31 credit program designed for the working professional.  The program is 2 years in length and is considered part time.

But what if I want to do full time?

Due to the nature of the Scholarly Project, the program cannot be condensed to less than 2 years.  Courses may be taken over the summer and completed in less than 2 years, but the student cannot graduate until all coursework and the Scholarly Project is completed.

Do I need to come to campus at all?

All courses are online with additional live, online classes (most courses have 2-3 live class sessions per term) that are web based.

Due to the intense nature of the DNP Scholarly Project, the UMass DNP Program requires several campus visits throughout the program.  The dates of the campus visits are given far in advance (at admission and then 1 year in advance from there) to ensure all students have time to arrange life and work.  We strive to make these campus visits highly worthwhile, and we have had consistently positive feedback on the value of these campus visits.

DNP Intensives (Campus visits)

  • Year 1 in early September for 1 day as an orientation to the program
  • Year 1 in April or May for one day for Research Day to present DNP Scholarly Project idea
  • Year 2 in April/May for 1 day for each student in the cohort to present and defend the Scholarly Project- in May for one day on campus for students to present and defend their Scholarly Project

Coursework

Year 1 Fall

  • NU 765 Leadership (3)
  • NU 722 Quality (3)
  • NU 714 DNP Project Seminar I (3)

Year 1 Spring

  • NU 715 Informatics (3)
  • NU 716 Evidence Based Practice II (DNP Seminar II)  (3)

Year 1 Summer

  • NU 618 Health Policy (3)
  • NU 717 DNP Seminar: Project Implementation (DNP Seminar III) (200hrs) (3)

Year 2 Fall

  • NU 718 DNP Seminar: Project Synthesis (DNP Seminar IV) (100hrs) (2)
  • NU 735 DNP Role Immersion Seminar (80Hrs) or *Elective (3)

Year 2 Spring

  • NU 719 DNP Seminar: Project Dissemination (DNP Seminar V) (100hrs) (2)
  • NU 745 Population Health (3)