College of Nursing and Health Innovation adds concentration to growing doctorate program

The College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University has added a post-master’s Innovation Leadership Concentration to its accredited Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program. The concentration is the seventh offered in the program.

“The DNP Innovation Leadership Concentration will provide advanced nursing knowledge and leadership competencies for nurses who are not direct care providers to improve health care delivery outcomes at the organization and systems level,” said Katherine Kenny, DNP director.

The new concentration focuses on improving health care through facilitating a culture of best practice, and providing the additional skills necessary to develop advance practice nursing leaders for the future. With the ever-increasing costs and challenges in health care, there is a strong need for innovative leaders to develop a new model for the health care system. This DNP degree is a highly individualized, interdisciplinary program applied to health care, with a theoretical and scholarly basis, Kenny added.

Graduates of this program will be prepared as change agents in the health care world to facilitate the application and integration of research into clinical practice using innovative approaches across multiple settings to improve health care, patient outcomes and health care systems.

The College of Nursing and Health Innovation launched its DNP program in January 2008 which has grown to be among the five largest programs at colleges of nursing in the nation with 195 students currently enrolled. Other concentrations or advanced practice specialty tracks offered include Family NP, Adult Gerontology NP, Child and Family Psychiatric NP, Neonatal NP, Family Psychiatric Mental Health NP, and Pediatric NP. The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) awarded the DNP program at the ASU College of Nursing and Health Innovation accreditation through 2016.

The ASU College of Nursing and Health Innovation is ranked 21st, or in the top 4 percent, of graduate nursing programs in the 2012 U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools.

For information, contact 602-496-0937 or e-mail GPO@asu.edu.