This is the only professional issues-oriented Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) text to fully integrate all eight American Association of Colleges of Nursing DNP competencies into one volume. It defines practice scholarship for the DNP role and facilitates the sound development of key leadership skills that enable DNP graduates to effectively influence politics and health care policy in order to improve patient and population health care outcomes.

The text focuses on the educational requirements of DNPs engaged in the arenas of leadership, health care policy, and information technology. It covers the growth and development of the DNP role, particularly in the context of contemporary health care challenges. With a focus on the Capstone Project, the text addresses the relationship of the DNP role to ongoing scholarship. It covers three important essentials of the DNP curriculum-evidence-based practice, health information technology, and outcomes measurement-and how they can be used to transform health care in the 21st century. The text's challenging and thought-provoking content is of particular value not only to students, but also to professors who will welcome the clarity it offers to the highly complex DNP curriculum.