DNP Competencies
DNP students specializing in comprehensive care will demonstrate expertise in the provision, coordination, and direction of comprehensive care to patients, including those who present in healthy states and those who present with complex, chronic, and/or co-morbid conditions, across clinical sites and over time.
The DNP student will:
Domain 1 Comprehensive Clinical Care
Competency 1
Evaluate patient needs based on genetic profile, family history, age, developmental stage and individual risk to formulate plans for health promotion and disease prevention.
Competency 2
Evaluate health risk utilizing principles of epidemiology and clinical prevention.
Competency 3
Formulate differential diagnoses, and diagnostic strategies and therapeutic interventions with attention to scientific evidence, safety and cost, for patients who present with new conditions and those with ambiguous or incomplete data, complex illnesses, and comorbid conditions.
Competency 4
Appraise acuity of patient condition, determine need to transfer patient to higher acuity setting, coordinate transfer to optimize patient outcomes.
Competency 5
Evaluate and direct care during hospitalization, and design a comprehensive discharge plan for patients from an acute care setting.
Competency 6
Direct comprehensive care for patient in a sub-acute setting to maximize quality of life and functional status.
Domain 2 Interdisciplinary and Patient Centered Communication
Competency 1
Assemble a collaborative interdisciplinary network, refer, and consult appropriately while co-managing comprehensive patient care.
Competency 2
Coordinate the care of patients with chronic illness utilizing specialists, other disciplines, community resources, and family, while co-managing primary responsibility for direction of patient care as the focus of care transitions across ambulatory to acute, sub acute settings, and community settings.
Competency 3
Translate health information, incorporating shared decision-making and address the specific needs of a patient in context of family and community.
Competency 4
Facilitate and guide the process of palliative care and/or planning end of life care and/or supporting the grieving process. Promote informed choices and shared decision making by patient, family, and members of the health care team.
Domain 3 Systems and Context of Care
Competency 1
Construct and evaluate outcomes of a culturally sensitive, individualized intervention.
Competency 2
Evaluate gaps in health care access that compromise optimal patient outcomes, and apply current knowledge of the organization and financing of health care systems to advocate for the patient and to ameliorate negative impact.
Competency 3
Provide individualized health care that challenges biases that contribute to health disparities
Competency 4
Synthesize the principles of legal and ethical decision-making and analyze dilemmas that arise in patient care, interprofessional relationships, research, or practice management to improve outcomes.
Competency 5
Integrate principles of business, finance, economics, and/or health policy to design an initiative that benefits a group of patients, practice, community, and/or a population.
Domain 4 Building and Using Evidence for Best Clinical Practices and Scholarship
Competency 1
Synthesize and analyze evidence from practice, clinical information systems, and patient databases using reflection, interpretation and cumulative clinical knowledge.
Competency 2
Evaluate quality of care against standards using reliable and valid methods and measures and propose innovative, interdisciplinary models that enhance outcomes.
Competency 3
Critically appraise and synthesize research findings and other evidence to inform practice and policy for optimal patient outcomes.
Competency 4
Assess and critically appraise clinical scholarship through participation in the peer-review process.
Competency 5
Utilize informatics tools to build data to identify best practices and to identify deficits and improve delivery of care.