NR661: 10626 W5 APN Capstone Portfolio Parts 1

Reflection on the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) The History and Purpose of the DNP Degree A nursing Doctorate (ND) was the first clinical doctoral program to be offered in 1979 by Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland. The degree did not need applicants to specialize but was perceived as an entry-level program that holds significant similarity to the Doctor of Medicine degree (Gardenier, Schreibman & Henrich, 2017). It was particularly designed for students with a master’s or bachelor’s degree in another field. There later was eventually changed to the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and was launched in 1999 by the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, (Ketefian & Redman 2015). The Current State of the DNP Currently, the DNP program is offered in 50 states across the United States, offering over 336 programs with an additional 121 DNP programs in the planning stage, (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, (AACN), 2018). Institutions that offer the APN program also offer DNP programs, having moved the preparation for advanced nursing practice from the masters’ level to the doctorate level (Ketefian & Redman, 2015). The States of Florida, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Texas, Ohio, Minnesota, and Massachusetts currently have the most numbers (over 10) DNP Programs. The number of DNP-enrolled students has increased from 25,289 to 29,093 between 2016 and 2017 (AACN, 2018). Moreover, the number of DNP graduates has also increased from 4,855 to 6,090 during the same period. The Future State of the DNP