Doctor of nursing practice programs across the United States: a benchmark of information: part I: program characteristics.

The number of doctor of nursing practice (DNP) programs in the United States has dramatically increased. To date, there is a lack of benchmark data regarding DNP program attributes; thus, the purpose of this investigation was to generate such a database. Because of the volume of information gathered, the results are presented in a two-part article. Part I consists of DNP program characteristics, which include location of program, type of program, delivery, plan of study, program length, number of credits, cost, program tracks, practice course name, review of programs still offering the master's degree for advanced practice nurses (APNs), and the availability of nursing education electives. Part II consists of information regarding DNP admission criteria. A cross-sectional, descriptive design was used to explore 137 DNP programs across the United States. Data were collected exclusively via university Web sites. Descriptive statistics including frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations were calculated and presented in report, table, or figure format. This comprehensive DNP program characteristic database is the first, to our knowledge, that is available for review. As universities prepare to develop, amend, and seek accreditation for their DNP programs, knowledge of these characteristics would be helpful to compare, contrast, and construct curricula.