DNP Project Type Decision Aid
NUR 6132
Evidence-Based Implementation
01
OVERVIEWChoosing the right DNP project type is essential to ensure alignment with your practice interests, key partner needs, and the context of your clinical or organizational setting. This decision aid provides guidance on how to determine which project type best fits your goals.
Quality Improvement
02
Program Development or Evaluation
03
DIRECTIONSNavigate through the examples reflect on your project direction before committing to a project type.
Policy & Advocacy
04
Innovation
05
Quality Improvement
When This Is the Right Fit
• You're focused on improving care delivery processes, workflows, or outcomes within a system. • You want to reduce inefficiency, variation, or waste in current practice. • Your stakeholders are most concerned about performance gaps or metrics.
You Might Be Doing Things Like
• Reducing delays in chemotherapy administration through Lean improvement cycles. • Improving documentation compliance in school-based clinics. • Shortening the time from triage to provider evaluation in a busy urgent care center.
Policy & Advocacy
When This Is the Right Fit
• You’re addressing an issue that involves organizational, local, or national policy. • You want to operationalize, adapt, or implement a policy in a particular setting. • You’re leading or supporting advocacy around a public health or equity issue.
You Might Be Doing Things Like
• Implementing a state policy on opioid prescribing in your FQHC. • Developing an institutional policy for gender-affirming care access. • Creating an advocacy campaign to increase HPV vaccination in rural communities.
Evidence-Based Implementation
When This Is the Right Fit
• You’ve identified strong existing evidence (clinical guidelines, best practices, systematic reviews) related to your problem. • Your goal is to put that evidence into action in your practice setting with contextual adaptation. • Your stakeholder wants to improve alignment with evidence-based care standards.
You Might Be Doing Things Like
• Implementing the CDC’s Diabetes Prevention Program in a community clinic. • Adapting a nurse-driven sepsis protocol from a hospital system to your local ED. • Launching guideline-based fall prevention in a senior living facility.
Innovation
When This Is the Right Fit
• You want to develop or test a novel solution to a complex problem. • You plan to use design-thinking or human-centered design to co-create with users. • Your stakeholder wants something new — not a known intervention, but a creative and practical prototype.
You Might Be Doing Things Like
• Designing a mobile app for medication adherence in patients with SUD. • Co-creating a restorative huddle intervention with ICU nurses. • Piloting an immersive virtual simulation for health equity education.
Program Development or Evaluation
When This Is the Right Fit
• You want to design a new intervention, service, or educational program to meet an identified need. • You’ve been asked to evaluate an existing program’s outcomes, fidelity, or stakeholder satisfaction. • Your setting has a program in place, but it has never been systematically evaluated or refined.
You Might Be Doing Things Like
• Developing a nurse-led group prenatal care model. • Evaluating the effectiveness of a school mental health program launched during the pandemic. • Creating a caregiver training workshop for homebound stroke survivors.
DNP Project Type Decision Aid
DLI
Created on October 15, 2025
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Transcript
DNP Project Type Decision Aid
NUR 6132
Evidence-Based Implementation
01
OVERVIEWChoosing the right DNP project type is essential to ensure alignment with your practice interests, key partner needs, and the context of your clinical or organizational setting. This decision aid provides guidance on how to determine which project type best fits your goals.
Quality Improvement
02
Program Development or Evaluation
03
DIRECTIONSNavigate through the examples reflect on your project direction before committing to a project type.
Policy & Advocacy
04
Innovation
05
Quality Improvement
When This Is the Right Fit
• You're focused on improving care delivery processes, workflows, or outcomes within a system. • You want to reduce inefficiency, variation, or waste in current practice. • Your stakeholders are most concerned about performance gaps or metrics.
You Might Be Doing Things Like
• Reducing delays in chemotherapy administration through Lean improvement cycles. • Improving documentation compliance in school-based clinics. • Shortening the time from triage to provider evaluation in a busy urgent care center.
Policy & Advocacy
When This Is the Right Fit
• You’re addressing an issue that involves organizational, local, or national policy. • You want to operationalize, adapt, or implement a policy in a particular setting. • You’re leading or supporting advocacy around a public health or equity issue.
You Might Be Doing Things Like
• Implementing a state policy on opioid prescribing in your FQHC. • Developing an institutional policy for gender-affirming care access. • Creating an advocacy campaign to increase HPV vaccination in rural communities.
Evidence-Based Implementation
When This Is the Right Fit
• You’ve identified strong existing evidence (clinical guidelines, best practices, systematic reviews) related to your problem. • Your goal is to put that evidence into action in your practice setting with contextual adaptation. • Your stakeholder wants to improve alignment with evidence-based care standards.
You Might Be Doing Things Like
• Implementing the CDC’s Diabetes Prevention Program in a community clinic. • Adapting a nurse-driven sepsis protocol from a hospital system to your local ED. • Launching guideline-based fall prevention in a senior living facility.
Innovation
When This Is the Right Fit
• You want to develop or test a novel solution to a complex problem. • You plan to use design-thinking or human-centered design to co-create with users. • Your stakeholder wants something new — not a known intervention, but a creative and practical prototype.
You Might Be Doing Things Like
• Designing a mobile app for medication adherence in patients with SUD. • Co-creating a restorative huddle intervention with ICU nurses. • Piloting an immersive virtual simulation for health equity education.
Program Development or Evaluation
When This Is the Right Fit
• You want to design a new intervention, service, or educational program to meet an identified need. • You’ve been asked to evaluate an existing program’s outcomes, fidelity, or stakeholder satisfaction. • Your setting has a program in place, but it has never been systematically evaluated or refined.
You Might Be Doing Things Like
• Developing a nurse-led group prenatal care model. • Evaluating the effectiveness of a school mental health program launched during the pandemic. • Creating a caregiver training workshop for homebound stroke survivors.