“I wanted to continue my education at Elms because the professors and instructors have such varied experiences, I learn something new every class, and am able to bring these concepts to my job and improve how I lead my team.”
Our students benefit from personalized faculty attention and join classmates who also have diverse backgrounds that enrich learning.
Kelli Barrieau, DNP ’19, MBA, RN
Health Systems Innovation and Leadership track
Clinical Director, Commonwealth Care Alliance
DNP in Health Systems Innovation and Leadership
The Health Systems Innovation and Leadership (HSIL) concentration of the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree is designed to educate master’s-prepared nurses who are practicing in advanced roles such as advanced practice nurses (nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, nurse midwives and nurse anesthetists), nurse leaders, and nurse managers.
The HSIL track leverages the strengths of doctoral-level content and brings innovative approaches to students through newly acquired knowledge and skills needed to guarantee a quality education. The track will afford opportunities for students to participate in interdisciplinary collaborative seminars for peer-to-peer and student-to-faculty learning opportunities with the goal to learn how to advance health care transformation and care delivery that influences the overall patient experience.
As advanced nurses lead change, the demands for clear and convincing communication, strong analytic capabilities, and flexible leadership skills at the system level are requirements for contemporary practice today. The program aims to educate innovators for change who have the skills for practice to meet the challenges of a complex healthcare system.
The HSIL specialty track prepares graduates to be full interdisciplinary partners across that complex system, and to create innovative healing environments while transforming healthcare systems locally, nationally, and internationally.
Scholarly Project
The program culminates in a successful completion of a practice or systems-focused DNP Capstone Project demonstrating improved outcomes in a practice setting.
Graduates of the DNP-HSIL program meet requirements to sit for a variety of national certifications offered by the American Nurses Credentialing Center and the American Organization of Nurse Leaders (AONL), including the Certification for Executive Nursing Practice Exam (CENP), or the Certification for Nurse Managers and Leaders (CNML) exam.
Curriculum
Click to view course requirements for the Health Systems Innovation and Leadership (HSIL) DNP.
| Course # | Course Name | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Organizational Systems and Quality Improvement | 3 | |
| Population Health and Epidemiology | 3 | |
| Research Methods and Translation for Advanced Practice | 3 | |
| Ethics for Advanced Practice | 3 | |
| Financial Management in Health Care Delivery | 3 | |
| Leadership and Collaboration in Health Care Organizations | 3 | |
| DNP Capstone Project II: Lean Launch Pad/Healthcare | 3 | |
| Business Marketing and Communications | 2 | |
| DNP Capstone Project III: Population Health-Based Care and Informatics | 3 | |
| DNP Capstone Project IV: Advanced Management in Complex Health Care Systems for Change: Implementation | 3 | |
| DNP Capstone Project V: Evaluation of Project in Organizational Setting and Writing for Dissemination | 4 |