Increase Your Impact, Earnings, and Expertise with an Online DNP.
Advance your nursing career and make a greater impact in the fields of health care and nursing by enrolling in one of the most flexible and affordable online DNP programs in Indiana. The University of Southern Indiana’s 100% online MSN to DNP program offers a top-quality nursing education from specialized experts who will prepare you for a range of leadership roles that align with top regional and national health care needs.
Choose between two DNP specialty tracks designed for students who already have a graduate degree in nursing:
- Advance Nursing Practice: For nurse practitioners who are interested in integrating evidence-based nursing science with ethics, biophysics, psychosocial science, analytics, pedagogy and organizational sciences to achieve the highest level of nursing practice.
- Organizational Systems Leadership: For students with a non-clinical background who are interested in systems leadership, health care policy, strategic planning, resource allocation, technology and informatics to improve health care outcomes.
Either track can be completed in two years of full-time study or three years of part-time coursework, depending on your needs and goals. We also offer synchronous online intensives twice a year and accept up to 42 credit hours from your MSN to help accelerate your DNP.
Tuition & Fees Get Started!
What Can You Do With a DNP?
Whether you’re interested in leadership in acute care settings, community and population health, or educational institutions, our online MSN to DNP program will give you the expertise and advanced nursing skills you need to effectively benefit patients, improve outcomes and make meaningful contributions in your chosen health care career. Explore some of the leadership positions that graduates of online MSN to DNP programs can pursue.
Once you complete our online Doctor of Nursing Practice - Post MSN, you’ll discover new opportunities to careers such as:
- Completed master's degree in nursing from a nationally-accredited nursing program and a regionally-accredited college or university.
- Earned graduate program GPA of 3.0 based on a 4.0 scale or the equivalent.
- Satisfactorily completed a course in graduate research (grade of B or better).
- Complete application file.
- International students may be required to supply additional information as outlined by the School of Graduate Studies.
- Faculty may request an interview with an applicant.
The online graduate nursing programs are limited to working with certain states in the U.S. only. Moving into a state not recognized by the graduate nursing program will lead to inability to continue in graduate nursing coursework. The exception to this is active military status. Click here to see your availability.
- Submit an online application and a $40 application fee.
- Upload a current professional resume or curriculum vitae to your application account.
- Submit transcripts to Graduate Studies.
- Official transcripts are required only from the institution at which your highest degree was earned. Electronic transcripts are preferred and can be emailed from the previous institution to Graduate.Studies@usi.edu
- Unofficial transcripts from other institutions attended can be submitted via email by the applicant to Graduate.Studies@usi.edu
- Applicants who wish to seek transfer credit for graduate coursework must submit an official transcript from the institution where that work was completed.
- Mailed transcripts can be sent to this address:
Graduate Studies
University of Southern Indiana
8600 University Blvd.
Evansville, IN 47712
- Read the full transcript policy by clicking here.
- International applicants may be required to submit additional information.
Upon completion of the Doctor of Nursing Practice program, you will be able to:
- Integrate nursing science with knowledge from ethics and the biophysical, psychosocial, analytical, educational, and organizational sciences as the basis for the highest level of nursing practice.
- Develop and evaluate care delivery approaches that meet current and future needs of patient populations based upon scientific findings in nursing science, clinical sciences, and organizational, political, and economic sciences.
- Use analytic methods to appraise existing literature and other evidence to determine and implement the best evidence for practice.
- Serve as a leader in the development and implementation of institutional, local, state, federal, and international health policy.
- Advocate for the patients and the nursing profession within government, business, education, and healthcare communities.
- Collaborate with interprofessional teams to analyze complex practice and organizational issues in leading change to improve patient, population, and system health outcomes.
- Analyze epidemiological, bio-statistical, environmental, and other scientific data related to individual, aggregate, and population health.
- Integrate advanced level of judgment, systems thinking, and accountability in designing, teaching, delivering, and evaluating evidence-based care to improve patient and healthcare outcomes.
- Lead quality improvement initiatives with complex and diverse health care systems.
- Disseminate practice-based initiatives that promote client safety and reduction of medical errors.
Are you an out-of-state student interested in pursuing the master’s in nursing online degree at USI or determining if the graduate nursing programs meet individual state requirements for employment? Check your eligibility.
The MSN and Post MSN online programs are limited to working with certain states in the U.S. only. Moving into a state not recognized by the graduate nursing program will lead to inability to continue in MSN coursework. The exception to this is active military status.
Program Curriculum for the Doctor of Nursing Practice
You may apply a maximum of 42 graduate credits toward the required 78 hours for the degree. The USI DNP curriculum is built upon three distinct areas of graduate nursing content as determined by the AACN Essentials document. You can then choose one of the two specialty tracks: Advanced Nursing Practice or Organizational and Systems Leadership. In both tracks, the plan of study includes the same 13 required DNP courses. Assignments within each course, in addition to the DNP project, will focus topics consistent with each track.
- NURS 721 - Systems Leadership and Interprofessional Collaboration (5 credit hours)
- NURS 724 - Healthcare Policy and Strategic Planning (3 credit hours)
- NURS 725 - Resource Utilization in Healthcare (4 credit hours)
- NURS 727 - Healthcare Technology and Informatics (3 credit hours)
- NURS 713 - Theory and Practice (3 credit hours)
- NURS 715 - Analytical Methods for Population-Based Care (4 credit hours)
- NURS 717 - Cultural Diversity (2 credit hours)
- NURS 854 - Critical Appraisal of Practice (3 credit hours)
- NURS 855 - Synthesis of Nursing Practice (3 credit hours)
- NURS 866 - DNP Proposal 1 (1 credit hours)
- NURS 874 - DNP Project 1 (3 credit hours)
- NURS 875 - DNP Project 2 (2 credit hours)
The Doctor of Nursing Practice program at the University of Southern Indiana is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (http://www.ccneaccreditation.org).
Earn Your Doctor of Nursing Practice on Your Time
We offer admission into the program once a year and will work with you to provide a plan of study that allows for timely graduation and achievement of your goals.
| Course Start | Intensive I | Intensive II |
| Fall 2024 | August 2024 | April 2025 |
| Fall 2025 | August 2025 | April 2026 |
| Fall 2026 | August 2026 | April 2027 |
Real-world DNP project
Complete a DNP project as you move through your DNP courses so that you can apply a real-world project to your nursing discipline or specialty. Although our program is entirely online, your project can be implemented in a health care site in your hometown or wherever is most convenient to you. Many of our DNP students pursue quality improvement projects.
A caring environment
Why get a DNP at the University of Southern Indiana? USI’s commitment to fostering a caring environment is unique among online DNP programs. We prioritize collaboration between nursing students, alumni, faculty, staff and health care professionals to optimize your personal and professional growth. You’ll also be assigned a dedicated faculty mentor based on your specific interests who will support you through every phase your DNP project.