The UF College of Nursing’s Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program was given official reaccreditation by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) for a full 10 years. The CCNE accreditation “serves the public interest by assessing and identifying programs that engage in effective educational practices. As a voluntary, self‐regulatory process, CCNE accreditation supports and encourages continuing self‐assessment by nursing programs and supports continuing growth and improvement of collegiate professional education and nurse residency programs.”
Value Colleges has named the University of Florida’s Doctor of Nursing Practice program number 6 value among DNP programs nationally.
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), the leading national nursing education organization, officially recommended adopting the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree as the industry standard and terminal degree for advanced practice nurses.
When it comes to nursing, the DNP differs from the Ph.D. in a few essential ways, the main difference being that the Ph.D. is oriented toward theory and research, while the DNP is directed toward putting theory and research into practice in advanced clinical situations.
The AACN has promoted the DNP degree to combat the well-known nursing shortage, a shortage which has not been alleviated by years of advocacy and even threatens to become a crisis in the next decade. Strong, well-educated leaders are needed in clinical settings, and current, knowledgeable educators are needed in clinical education; the DNP prepares nurses for both.