With the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) recommending adoption of the DNP as the standard terminal degree for practicing nurses, Value College's Top 50 Best Value Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Programs of 2016 comes at a critical time for the nursing profession. The Top 50 ranking is designed to give working nurses guidance and direction for choosing a DNP program that will have a real impact on their careers. Value Colleges considers only regionally-accredited, time-tested, reputable colleges and universities that have proven their value on the job market and in practice.
From the AACN's authoritative list of 265 DNP programs, Value Colleges uses three trusted metrics for ranking the top 50: 1) reputability (based on U.S. News & World Report 2017 Best Grad Schools for Nursing DNP); cost (actual per-credit, in-state tuition); and projected salary outcome (based on payscale data for mid-career/alumni of institution)
Coming in first place in this ranking is the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston, Texas. The University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, placed second, and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Texas, came in third.
The full list, in alphabetical order, is as follows:
Arizona State University - Tempe, AZ
Columbia University - New York, NY
Duke University - Durham, NC
Florida Atlantic University - Boca Raton, FL
Florida International University - Miami, FL
George Mason University - Fairfax, VA
George Washington University - Washington, DC
Johns Hopkins University - Baltimore, MD
Marquette University - Milwaukee, WI
New Mexico State University - Las Cruces, NM
New York University - New York, NY
Ohio State University - Columbus, OH
Oregon Health & Science University - Portland, OR
Purdue University - West Lafayette, IN
Rutgers University-Newark - Newark, NJ
South Dakota State University - Brookings, SD
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center - Lubbock, TX
Texas Woman's University - Denton, TX
University at Buffalo (SUNY) - Buffalo, NY
University of Alabama System - Tuscaloosa, AL
University of Arizona - Tucson, AZ
University of Cincinnati - Cincinnati, OH
University of Colorado Colorado Springs - Colorado Springs, CO
University of Colorado Denver - Denver, CO
University of Connecticut - Storrs, CT
University of Florida - Gainesville, FL
University of Iowa - Iowa City, IO
University of Kansas - Kansas City, KS
University of Kentucky - Lexington, KY
University of Maryland at Baltimore - Baltimore, MD
University of Massachusetts - Amherst, MA
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, MI
University of Minnesota - Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN
University of Missouri - Columbia, MO
University of Missouri-Kansas City - Kansas City, MO
University of Nebraska Medical Center - Omaha, NE
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, NC
University of Oklahoma - Oklahoma City, OH
University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh, PA
University of San Diego - San Diego, CA
University of South Florida - Tampa, FL
University of Texas at Arlington - Arlington, TX
University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston - Houston, TX
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston - Galveston, TX
University of Utah - Salt Lake City, UT
University of Virginia - Charlottesville, VA
University of Washington - Seattle, WA
Vanderbilt University - Nashville, TN
Washington State University - Pullman, WA
Yale University - New Haven, CT
Value Colleges editor Carrie Sealey-Morris says, "The DNP degree seeks to remedy a long-time nursing shortage which threatens to become a crisis in the next decade." Unlike the nursing PhD, which focuses on research and theory, Sealey-Morris explains that the DNP degree "puts theory and research into practice in advanced clinical situations. These programs are designed to move nursing into the future to meet the changing needs of a diverse population."
Value Colleges is an unaffiliated, web-based source for information and analysis designed to guide graduating high schoolers, working adults, international students, and more to find the colleges and programs that will have the most real-world impact on their lives.