Choose Your DNP Specialty

Expanding your knowledge and expertise through a graduate nursing program is key in developing new skills and practice innovations. Nurses prepared with a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree — the terminal practice degree in the profession — experience a greater level of autonomy and opportunities to provide direct patient care at an advanced level, conducting research, teaching, impacting public policy, leading health systems and implementing evidence-based solutions.

Calls for nurses with graduate-level education are coming from both inside and outside of the profession from authorities as diverse as the Institute of Medicine, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, overall employment of nurse anesthetists, nurse midwives and nurse practitioners is projected to grow 26 percent from 2018 to 2028, much faster than the average for all occupations.

To support you in understanding your options as you consider your next steps, we asked our program directors to share some perspective on their nursing specialties. We also created a quiz to help you define what nursing specialty would be a better fit for your interests and career plans.