DNP in Nurse Midwifery
The Doctor of Nursing Practice degree (DNP) has three options: Family Nurse Practitioner, Nurse-Midwifery, and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. The DNP degree prepares the graduate for advanced practice nursing with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to provide clinical expertise, judgment, scholarship, and leadership at the highest level of nursing practice in the primary health care setting. Graduates will be eligible for national APRN certification and licensure specific to the population focus.
Students are able to choose a full-time three year or part-time four year course plan for completion of the DNP degree. DNP applicants with prior graduate nursing education will submit transcripts for review of potential equivalent coursework. This gap analysis will inform an individualized Program of Study.
Nurse-Midwifery option prepares advanced practice registered nurses who demonstrate clinical expertise, judgment, scholarship, and leadership to serve their communities at the highest level of nurse-midwifery practice. Nurse-midwives are independent practitioners in Montana, with full diagnostic and prescriptive authority. They place great value on being part of an interdisciplinary, collaborative health care team. Nurse-midwives provide prenatal, birth and postpartum care, newborn care in the first month of life, and primary care to women across the lifespan starting in adolescence.
The focus of the DNP – Nurse-Midwifery option is to prepare graduates in the Hallmarks of Midwifery to enhance the health of individuals and families in the provision of person-centered, evidence-based, inclusive, ethical, accessible and equitable midwifery care with an emphasis on rural and underserved populations. The nurse-midwifery model prioritizes client self-determination, empowerment, cultural safety, and shared decision-making, and finds a balance between honoring physiologic processes and recommending appropriate interventions. Graduates generate new knowledge through innovation of practice change, the translation of evidence, and the implementation of quality improvement processes in specific practice settings, systems, or with specific populations to improve health or health outcomes. Graduates are eligible to sit for national certification by the American Midwifery Certification Board. Learn more about the American Midwifery Certification Board
Scholarly Project
Each student completes and defends a scholarly project developed in collaboration with a faculty advisor and a committee conducted over two semesters during the final year of study. Examples of exciting and innovative student projects include: development of mental health outreach programs to the rural elderly; examination of alternative health practices for healing; and establishment of pediatric cancer support groups for the rural client.
Program Learning Outcomes
- Evaluate, integrate, translate, and apply evidence from nursing science and other disciplines in the delivery of care.
- Create, communicate, and evaluate person-centered care that includes holistic, individualized, just, culturally aware, respectful, compassionate, coordinated, evidence-based and developmentally appropriate.
- Analyze current population health gaps and create and evaluate cost-effective, evidence-based interventions to meet the needs of the target population.
- Advance the scholarship of nursing through the integration of best evidence and ethical conduct of scholarly activities.
- Employ improvement science to ensure system effectiveness for safe, person-centered care within a physically, psychologically, secure, and just environment.
- Collaborate across professions and with other stakeholders to optimize care, enhance the healthcare experience, and strengthen outcomes.
- Coordinate the resources of the complex healthcare system to provide safe, quality, and equitable care to diverse populations.
- Use information and communication technology to anticipate, manage and improve healthcare in accordance with best practice and professional and regulatory standards.
- Model a sustainable professional identity of accountability, ethical comportment, and collaborative disposition.
- Participate in activities and self-reflection that foster personal health, resilience, and well-being; students will contribute to life-long learning; and students will support the acquisition of nursing expertise and the assertion of leadership.
The Doctor of Nursing Practice - Nurse Midwife (DNP-Nurse Midwife) is one of three advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) options with the DNP degree. The focus of the DNP - Nurse Midwifery option is to prepare graduates in the Hallmarks of Midwifery to enhance the health of individuals and families in the provision of person-centered, evidence-based, inclusive and equitable midwifery care with an emphasis on rural and underserved populations. Graduates generate new knowledge through innovation of practice change, the translation of evidence, and the implementation of quality improvement processes in specific practice settings, systems, or with specific populations to improve health or health outcomes. Graduates are eligible to sit for national certification by the American Midwifery Certification Board.
After successful application and admission into the DNP - Nurse Midwife program, students will complete the following plan of study over 8 semesters.
| Year 1 | Credits | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall | Spring | Summer | |
| NRSG 601 - Advanced Health Assessment | 3 | ||
| NRSG 602 - Adv Physio/Pathophysiology | 4 | ||
| NRSG 603 - Advanced Pharmacology I | 2 | ||
| NRSG 673 - Writing for Scholarly Projects | 0-2 | ||
| NRSG 604 - Evidence Based Practice I | 3 | ||
| NRSG 606 - Statistical Applications | 3 | ||
| NRSG 609 - Advanced Nursing Leadership & Roles | 3 | ||
| NRSG 640 - Advanced Pharmacology II Nurse Midwifery | 3 | ||
| NRSG 605 - Evidence Based Practice II | 3 | ||
| NRSG 607 - Diagnostic Reasoning | 3 | ||
| NRSG 641 - Midwifery Care During the Antepartum | 2 | ||
| NRSG 644 - Primary and Gynecologic Care | 4 | ||
| Year Total: | 9-11 | 12 | 12 |
| Year 2 | Credits | ||
| Fall | Spring | Summer | |
| NRSG 608 - Design H C Delivery Systems | 0-3 | ||
| NRSG 639 - Midwifery Clinical Care Skills and Procedures | 2 | ||
| NRSG 642 - Midwifery Care During the Intrapartum | 3 | ||
| NRSG 643 - Midwifery Care During the Postpartum and Care of the Neonate | 2 | ||
| NRSG 610 - Health Care Informatics | 3 | ||
| NRSG 612 - Ethics, Law, and Policy for Advocacy in Healthcare | 3 | ||
| NRSG 613 - Finance & Budget H C Systems | 2 | ||
| NRSG 645 - Advanced Midwifery Clinical I | 3 | ||
| NRSG 611 - Program Planning & Evaluation for Quality Improvement | 3 | ||
| NRSG 614 - Vulnerability and Health Care in Diverse Communities | 0-3 | ||
| NRSG 646 - Advanced Midwifery Clinical II | 4 | ||
| Year Total: | 7-10 | 11 | 7-10 |
| Year 3 | Credits | ||
| Fall | Spring | Summer | |
| NRSG 647 - Advanced Midwifery Clinical III | 4 | ||
| NRSG 675 - DNP Scholarly Project | 3 | ||
| NRSG 648 - Advanced Midwifery Clinical IV | 6 | ||
| NRSG 675 - DNP Scholarly Project | 3 | ||
| Year Total: | 7 | 9 | |
| Total Program Credits: | 74-82 | ||