Doctor of Nursing Practice Student Resources

A DNP can help advance your career in the direction of leadership in clinical practice. You can also use your DNP to work as a professor at the college and university level. 

UCI does not accept transfer credit for doctoral programs.  If equivalent courses were taken in another graduate nursing program, up to 2 courses can be waived/substituted, however, the units would need to be made up by taking elective courses. Please have the syllabus for each course you wish to petition and connect with the Faculty of Record and work with the DNP advisor to help you with the petition process. 

The DNP Scholarly Project will offer you opportunities to research, implement and evaluate a clinical practice or health policy issue. There may also be opportunities for students to work with faculty on their individual research.

Full-time work may be possible, specifically in the Post-Master’s track, however, it is not recommended for the Family Nurse Practitioner track. Please keep in mind that the DNP is a full-time program, and the pace and intensity are demanding. The FNP track is especially time consuming in Year 2 when clinical rotations begin.

Family Nurse Practitioner Track Students: On-campus sessions are required each quarter for about a day or day and a half.  These visits will typically occur in week 9 each quarter and will be held on Thursday-Saturday. Some quarters may require additional on-campus days due to the clinical nature of the course. In addition, the Prologue, Intersession, and Epilogue courses are a 3.5 days on-campus intensive sessions. 

Post-Master’s Track Students: Expect to come to campus only for Prologue, Intersession, and Epilogue.

DNP classes are hybrid in nature and students are expected to be available for synchronous sessions during their class time. 1st year DNP-FNP courses are on Tuesday, 2nd year DNP-FNP courses are on Wednesday, and 3rd year DNP-FNP courses are on Thursday. DNP Post-Master’s courses may vary from 1-2 days a week, depending on the quarter.

Our Visitor Center webpage has information on local hotels, and many provide shuttle service to UCI. 

The UCI School of Nursing has experienced preceptors in a variety of clinical sites and specialty areas in the Orange County and surrounding areas.  These NP, MD, DO and CNM preceptors are available to DNP/FNP students.  The School of Nursing coordinates the clinical placements. You may identify and recommend preceptors with whom you have networked for the purpose of clinical placements. All preceptors must be vetted by the UCI DNP program, and a formal affiliation must be established between the precepting entity and UCI prior to attending these clinical sites. The UCI School of Nursing will make every attempt to place you in a clinical site near you, however travel may be required to drive to further clinical sites.

You may complete the clinical hours which are part of the scholarly project in your place of employment or other clinical agency suitable to your project. 

You must live in California prior to the start of your clinical practicum courses in January of year 2 and are required to complete your DNP APRN Practicum courses in California. You must hold an active, full (not temporary) unrestricted California RN license during your tenure in the program. 

The first clinical practicum course begins in January of Year 2. 

The School of Nursing will coordinate this with an external agency.