DNP Jobs: What Are Your Options?

More and more nurses are earning clinical doctoral degrees, such as the Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP). If you’re interested in pursuing this exciting career path, or you’ve just graduated and want to know what kinds of DNP jobs are out there, then this post is for you! 

What is a DNP?

Let’s just do a quick review of what a DNP degree is (and isn’t). 

💡 A DNP is a level of education, specifically a type of terminal degree. There are three main types of terminal degrees for nurses: DNP, PhD, and EdD. 

The 3 Terminal Degrees: DNP vs. PhD vs. EdD

DNP focuses on the application of research to clinical practice to make improvements in patient care, healthcare systems, and nursing education.

PhD-prepared nurses focus heavily on conducting research and can work as a researcher or nurse educator.

EdD-prepared nurses have advanced knowledge of nursing education and curriculum design and work in different roles within nursing education.

What is the role of a DNP?

DNPs can hold advanced practice roles such as a nurse practitioner or nurse midwife, or they can have roles such as nurse executives or nurse educators. The goal of a DNP-prepared nurse is to bridge the gap between research and clinical practice to promote systems leadership and quality improvements.

Here’s something important to remember: having a DNP degree does not change your scope of practice as a nurse practitioner! Your scope of practice is based upon state licensure requirements and your area of clinical specialization.

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DNP Jobs: 4 Opportunities to Consider

DNP job opportunities and potential roles really depend on what your specialization is! If you have a DNP with an FNP clinical specialization, you might work in clinic administration or as a faculty member. If you have a DNP with a nursing administration background, you might work in a leadership position for a healthcare organization.

Having a DNP degree can really open up more opportunities for career advancement and give you the tools and knowledge to make positive change on a greater scale! Let’s offer some potential DNP jobs to consider in addition to clinical practice.

1. Senior Nursing Administrator

This role can take on many different titles: Chief Nursing Officer, Senior Nurse Executive, Director of Nursing, etc. As a DNP-prepared nurse, you’ll have advanced education and clinical experience in leadership roles. If you have a passion for leadership, healthcare systems and private healthcare companies are always looking for individuals to keep things running smoothly and efficiently.

With changes in healthcare funding and resource management, and the need for people that have the knowledge and leadership skills to run these organizations, there is a very positive outlook for job growth in this area. 

2. Clinical Researcher / Quality Improvement

Another important area for DNP-prepared nurses is in clinical research and quality improvement. What you’re trained to do is take the nursing and medical research completed by PhD-prepared researchers and evaluate it for its application for clinical practice.

Does the research support current practice? Does there need to be a change in clinical practice or policies? What factors need to be considered (social, financial, etc.) when translating the evidence into practice? What are the outcomes when applying research to clinical practice?

Nursing, as a profession, needs more PhD and DNP-prepared nurses generating and applying research to practice to promote evidence-based interventions and support quality improvement.

3. Health Policy Advocate / Lobbyist

Do you have a passion to create change on a larger scale? Do you have an interest in politics or public health policy? Private companies like insurance companies and professional nursing organizations need individuals prepared to promote healthcare legislation.

Specific job requirements may differ between companies, but overall, you’ll be looking at communicating with legislators on behalf of your organization. You would be discussing how legislation will affect the healthcare industry and, more importantly, the health of the population. 

4. Nursing Faculty

Another area of great potential for DNP-prepared nurses is as a nursing faculty. You may have heard of an upcoming nursing shortage, but there is also a nationwide nursing faculty shortage. As a doctoral prepared nurse, you can teach across different levels of nursing education. You can use both your clinical area of expertise and your ability to translate research into practice.

As a nursing faculty, you’ll be responsible for teaching nursing content to students, as well as advise them, revise curriculum, mentor students, and conduct and disseminate nursing research depending on the institution. While some institutions may hire nursing faculty without previous educational experience, it can be helpful to apply for adjunct faculty positions first. You can gain some experience in the faculty role and help to boost your resume if a full-time position becomes available. 

Final Thoughts

The bottom line is, we need more DNP-prepared nurses! Whatever the specialty (NP, midwife, anesthesia, nursing administration, etc), having a clinical doctorate will open more possibilities for you beyond the clinical arena. Nursing, as a profession, relies on individuals with advanced education to continue to move nursing forward in the ever-changing healthcare environment. You can really make a difference!

And for more (free!) content, check out these other posts on the SMNP Reviews blog:

• FNP vs DNP: What’s the Difference?
• 6 Future Trends for Nurse Practitioners
• Beyond the Bedside: Non-Clinical NP Jobs