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The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) is a practice degree program designed to prepare nurses at a doctoral level to lead health care change, serve as nursing faculty, and advance healthcare throughout California. The DNP program prepares nurse leaders and advanced practice nurses for evidence-based practice in patient care, leadership, and educational roles. Graduates are also prepared to serve as clinical faculty in postsecondary nursing education programs. The curriculum is based on the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s The Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice (2006) and meets all requirements for national accreditation.

Designed for working professionals, coursework is offered primarily in an online format with intensive sessions held on-site at the San José State University campus at the beginning of each academic year. Our graduates will serve as stewards of the nursing discipline and work collaboratively with other disciplines to improve the health and health care systems of our community.

See the The Valley Foundation School of Nursing website for more information.

Requirements for Advancement to Candidacy

Candidacy denotes that a student is fully qualified to complete the final stages of the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. Matriculated graduate students must submit a Petition for Advancement to Graduate Candidacy a minimum of one semester prior to graduating. General university requirements for advancement to candidacy  are detailed in the Graduate Policies and Procedures section of this catalog. The University requires that all graduate students complete the  Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR)  as a condition for advancement to candidacy. Courses that satisfy the GWAR are listed in the course requirements for the program.

Requirements for Graduation

University Graduation Requirements

Students must complete all residency, curriculum, unit, GPA, and culminating experience requirements as outlined in the Graduation Requirements  section of the Graduate Policies and Procedures . Completion of the degree also requires a minimum overall GPA of 3.0.

Practicum Requirement

In order to achieve the DNP competencies, programs Include a minimum of 270 hours as part of a supervised academic program. DNP students must complete a total of 1,000 post-baccalaureate hours (inclusive of hours completed in the student’s Master’s program) to be eligible for the DNP degree. Students who do not have 1,000 hours of eligible post-baccalaureate practice experience complete this requirement through the  NURS 580 - DNP Practicum . Units are contingent on hours required.

Culminating Experience

Plan B (Project)

All students must complete a doctoral project prior to the conferral of the doctoral degree. The doctoral project requires enrollment in the NURS 595A , NURS 595B , and NURS 595C  over consecutive semesters. 

The doctoral project shall be the written product of systematic, rigorous scholarship related to advanced nursing practice and focused on a potential or existing health problem or issue affecting a group or community, rather than an individual. The doctoral project will conform to the following criteria: It shall identify the clinical problem and question(s), state the major theoretical perspectives, explain the significance of the undertaking, relate it to relevant, scholarly and professional literature, set forth the appropriate sources for and methods of gathering and analyzing the data, and offer a conclusion or recommendation. Students must conduct the project according to ethical principles and present it in an oral defense to the project committee in a public forum