Yale School of Nursing’s founding dean, Annie W. Goodrich, wrote that nursing combines “the adventure of thought and the adventure of action.”¹ The post-master’s Doctor of Nursing Practice (D.N.P.) programs, like the Yale Ph.D. and master’s degree programs, are built upon this rich history and tradition of encouraging innovative and progressive thought as a guide for adventurous action and practice. The Yale School of Nursing’s D.N.P. programs focus on vision and innovation. In the Healthcare Leadership, Systems, and Policy program, the focus is on aggregates, systems, and health care organizations including emerging and nontraditional models of health care, leadership, executive leadership, and policy. In the Clinical program the focus is on clinical practice innovation. Nursing practice, within these focal areas, provides for interventions that influence practice and health care outcomes for individuals and populations, administration of nursing and health care organizations, and the development and implementation of health policy.

All competencies embody YSN’s philosophy that nursing has an ethical and social significance, and the curriculum is designed to prepare transformational executive, policy, and clinical leaders and innovators with the knowledge and skills to improve health care delivery and policies that are essential to insure patient-centered and culturally responsive clinical care, and safe, high-quality outcomes for diverse populations within and across health care systems and organizations.

The three-year part-time (six terms) Leadership D.N.P. program is tailored for mid-career nurses who are in systems leadership trajectories in their careers. The three-year part-time (six terms) Clinical D.N.P. program is geared toward clinically practicing advanced practice nurses. Both D.N.P. programs combine online course work with intensive on-campus experiences.

Upon completion of the YSN Leadership D.N.P. program, the graduate will demonstrate success in the areas of health systems, including large scale system change; business; and leadership. Upon completion of the Clinical D.N.P. program, the graduate will demonstrate success in the areas of clinical innovation and practice change. Both programs focus on the competencies outlined in the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s D.N.P. Essentials.

1	Annie Warburton Goodrich, The Social and Ethical Significance of Nursing (New York: Macmillan, 1933).