Going Back to School?
Premier Health supports lifelong learning by providing resources to expand knowledge and to support nursing careers. Nurses seeking undergraduate and graduate degrees are eligible for enhanced tuition assistance.
Eligibility
Full and part-time nurses (minimum of 32 hours per week) who have successfully completed the initial employment period prior to the beginning of a school term.
Programs of Study
Programs must be approved by Premier Health, offered by an accredited educational institution, and where appropriate, have proper professional accreditation. Nursing-specific educational institutions must be approved by Premier Health and accredited by the NLN CNEA and/or CCNE regulatory bodies.
Tuition Assistance
Premier Health provides tuition remission for nurses who attend select colleges that accept a waiver letter. The waiver letter allows Premier Health to be billed for tuition, which enables the nurse to take classes with little or no out-of-pocket expenses. In addition, tuition reimbursement is offered to nurses who attend properly accredited colleges that do not accept a waiver letter.
Doctor of Nursing Practice Project Completion
Premier Health is here to help nurses who are considering completing their Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project required to obtain their DNP degree. DNP students, whether non-employees or Premier Health employees, are welcome to complete their DNP project with Premier Health. To ensure project alignment with Premier Health policies and practices, please listen to our "Doing Your DNP Project Podcast" series. It offers an inside look at how our dynamic environment supports advanced practice nursing students in their DNP journey.
Doctor of Nursing Practice Project Podcast Series
Whether you're exploring options or preparing to apply, these podcasts provide the clarity you need to take the next step.
Doing Your DNP Project at Premier Health - Episode 1 - October 9, 2025
Announcer: Welcome to the Doing Your DNP podcast from Premier Health.
Holly Hall, EdD, RN, MSHA: Hello, I am doctor Holly Hall. Welcome to the Nursing evidence based Research Council's podcast, doing your DNP project at Premier. I will be today's interviewer. I am a nurse researcher with Premier Health and an adjunct research chair. I have over thirty five years in nursing and various clinical and leadership roles. I am absolutely thrilled today to be joined by Doctor Gail Crump and Gail, I will let you introduce yourself please.
Gail Crump DNP, APRN, FNP-C, CNRN: Hi, my name is Gail Crump. I am a nurse practitioner family nurse practitioner. I have been, here in various levels at Mayor Health for thirty five years. I am also the manager of the Clinical Neuroscience Institute (APP) for the neurology side. And, also I have a dementia clinic.
Holly Hall, EdD: Great, great. Okay. Today's purpose, for the audience is the, the podcast is to provide guidance for all prenatal health nursing service employees and students from other healthcare systems and universities seeking knowledge on the DNP and other doctoral programs while working on projects. Students learn to build strong collaborative partnerships with stakeholders and mentors. Objectives for the podcast is that we're going to discuss the issues of project variability and then explain the DNP project fundamentals to help eliminate ambiguity and confusion and broaden the student's understanding of the project's significance.
Holly Hall, EdD: So first we will start with, Gail is the expert and I will ask Gail, certain questions. So, Gail, are you ready for this?
Gail Crump, DNP: Yes, I'm ready today for the challenge.
Holly Hall, EdD: All right. And I call you Gail. But you are Dr. Crump.
Gail Crump, DNP: So, yeah, Gail is fine.
Holly Hall, EdD: Why did you make the decision to pursue a DNP?
Gail Crump, DNP: Well, I wanted to achieve a final degree, but I wanted something that was compatible with my direction and my career. I was already in management and I thought that I was not going to leave clinical practice. So I wanted something to support what my professional journey would look like. And that would be for a DNP.
Holly Hall, EdD: Okay. What were some other considerations in pursuing your DNP?
Gail Crump, DNP: I knew that I did not want a PhD and I was not interested in leaving the clinical realm and going into pure research. I was interested in staying within management. So I wanted to stay focused in clinical and leadership. And so when I looked through the various DNP programs, I was looking for one that mirrored my professional journey and providing that final degree.
Holly Hall, EdD: And was that strictly based on a virtual school or on site. Was that a consideration of yours?
Gail Crump, DNP: Well, because of my professional involvement in my current role, I elected to do virtual. And you know, doing clinicals and in management, your time is pretty involved. So I know I would not have enough time to dedicate to travel to a brick and mortar school. So virtual fit better in my time frame to accomplish my degree.
Holly Hall, EdD: Very good. Prior to pursuing your DNP, did you have a topic in mind?
Gail Crump, DNP: Yes. Like I said, I'm in neurology for many, many years, actually thirty five years in neurology. And so I was very much so interested in the stroke patient population. He worked extensively with stroke patients and the stroke service for many years. And so I was kind of concerned about the education process. And I knew Premier had started a new type of education process for their patients, which was utilizing videos. I wanted to see if adding new technology to existing practices of education here at Premier would make a difference.
Holly Hall, EdD: Okay. So you had an idea for your topic. And so you continued through until it was time to actually start working on your DNP project. So did you decide if it was going to be a QI or an EBP project? And this is a two prompt but you’ll probably have this in your response anyway. Did you full understand the difference between a QI and EBP project in research.
Gail Crump, DNP: I’ll just answer the latter part of the question first. You know, you can look at it and, and think you totally understand it, but and then put it into practice or how you implement or how you go about looking into evidence based or looking into QI. The nurse scientists that was afforded to me through the research center. The nursing research center here at Premier Health helped me understand the difference when looking at my peacock question and what my project would involve. And it's just a little bit of both because if you're looking at evidence based, it's about developing, it's not about developing a new knowledge or validating existing knowledge. It's more about translating the evidence and applying it to clinical decision making. Whereas QI where you use a lot of systematic data that guides your approach to improve a process or its outcomes.
Holly Hall, EdD: Was that a challenging process to navigate?
Gail Crump, DNP: Yes, it was, I had it, but I've had so many variables that I was asked the question, when do when you want to graduate because you know you can. When you're looking at a QI, you can pull it in so much data and so many variables that are, look at the big scheme of things are not that important. So you, when you work it on your peacock question, you have to kind of, this is the time to kind of drill down on those important key things that you want to accomplish. What are you looking for? What are the outcomes and what are these variables and will impact your outcome the most?
Holly Hall, EdD: Okay. All right. You'll, you have been an employee of Premier for some years. And therefore you are connected to resources and familiar with processes at Premier. What guidance would you give a student not employed by Premier?
Gail Crump, DNP: I know what you're trying to ask. I think that's a excellent question. I'm excited about our nursing evidence based research council that we have here at Premier. And I would suggest that a new nurse considering doing a project here at Premier Health get in contact with the clinical research center where you can meet our nurse scientists and nurse researcher, which they are excellent in helping you navigate through this, through your project.
Holly Hall, EdD: Okay. And you say the, um, that there's the, the nursing evidence based research council. I'm not sure if they were meeting when you went through the process, But we now meet every Thursday, the third Thursday of the month. And then we, it's from twelve to one, and students can always attend the meeting. It's virtual and it is on site. So to get to be able to collaborate with others and get insight and information and the research council is a, is a really valuable resource for students to navigate through the DNP process.
Gail Crump, DNP: Yes. And, I just want to throw one thing out there that I know we're working on an algorithm to be able to share at a later date, what this process looked like and how it's going to work. And I think it's, it's excellent that the nursing evidence based research council have designed a project for the DNP student.
Holly Hall, EdD: Okay. And this is a perfect time, I think, for me to interject that at the end of the of this podcast, we will share with the students, the contact information and the other resources necessary for them to be able to contact myself and also the neuroscientists. Okay. All right. Moving along, I think this is really significant for me. It is. Were there any challenges between your expectations, your academic faculty expectations and Premier Health’s expectations?
Gail Crump, DNP: There were a couple and starting with your own line and what impacts your timeline? One thing was the city training with the university. Most universities have their own education that they want you to achieve in order to prepare you to do research and understand certain principles around research. And that is protected health information. How to protect the client that's involved in your research. But you'll end up having to satisfy two different entities, the university and the place where you want to do your research yourself, the IRB. How to navigate the IRB. A lot of universities have a guidebook that students can use to help you through the whole process. So if they don't, then it can be a difficult process. But here, at Premier, we are afforded a nurse scientist and a nurse researcher that can help you through this process. So that was a couple of things that was challenging for me. Also when developing my Peacock question and making sure that it satisfied the university's suppression of QI and evidence based and making sure that the type of research that I wanted to do, or the project that I wanted to work on at Premier was that it could be accomplished, is what I'm what I'm trying to say, because at the university level. They're just excited about your project just as much as you are. So you may design something that cannot be accomplished at that facility. So you'll keep going back with a lot of revisions. You seem to come up with a project that the facility will accept that you can do there. And it meets the university standards for QI and evidence based practice.
Holly Hall, EdD: Okay.
Announcer: Thank you for listening. For additional resources, The Nursing Evidence Based Practice and Research Committee (NEBPRC) meets the third Thursday of the month at twelve noon via Teams and at various sites. Email doctor Pat O'Malley at pomalley@PremierHealth.com, for an email link and location. The NEBPRC welcomes and encourages your membership. Need a consultation? Want assistance with a EBP project? Email us to set up an appointment. Patricia O'Malley at pomalley@PremierHealth.com or Holly Hall at hhall@PremierHealth.com. Stay tuned for the next episode.
Doing Your DNP Project at Premier Health - Q & A - Episode 2 - October 6, 2025
Announcer: Welcome to the Doing Your DNP podcast from Premier Health. This episode is about how to navigate the DNP process, the everything you want to know about the DNP Q&A episode.
Holly Hall, EdD, RN, MSHA: Greetings. I am Dr. Hall. Welcome to the Nursing Evidence Based Practice Research Committee's podcast. The purpose of this podcast is to clarify information and to delve deeper into the DNP program. I will be today's interviewer. I am a nurse researcher with Premier Health and a research chair. I have over thirty five years experience in nursing, including clinical and administrative roles. I am thrilled to be joined by Dr. Gail Crump. Dr. Gail Crump, will you please introduce yourself?
Gail Crump, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, CNRN: Hi, I'm Gail Crump and I am a family nurse practitioner and also certified in neurology, and I have also obtained my doctoral degree.
Holly Hall, EdD: Dr. Crump will provide answers and insight into the DNP program.
Gail Crump, DNP: While the doctoral degree, the DNP program for nurse practitioners or whomever, whatever nurse that wants a DNP is designed to be a terminal degree focused on clinical practice. So it allows you to incorporate your clinical practice. It also focuses on leadership as well. But it's also a goal of the AACN, which is the American Association College of Nursing. For many years, they have been trying to let us know that their recommendation of entry into practice as a nurse practitioner would be a doctoral degree in the future.
Holly Hall, EdD: Okay. And, I'm just going to be straightforward with some of the questions because this information is very important for the listeners or the potential students. What is the purpose of the DNP?
Gail Crump, DNP: Well, definitely in nursing, we need our own level of experts. So the DNP is that level. It prepares you to be an expert in your area of practice because it is a terminal degree. Also, it provides you with the ability to practice evidence based practice, to work alongside the PhD, who does the research. And then the DNP could be the one who would help to initiate or guide the research into practice at a level of managers or educators. So there's many levels that we can work along with the bedside nursing and also the PhD nursing related to handling the needs of patient care.
Holly Hall, EdD: Okay. Excellent. What are the benefits of earning a DNP?
Gail Crump, DNP: There are several benefits. I did point out that the AACN had projected goals for nursing, wanting nursing as a practitioner to start at the DNP level as a provider, practitioner, provider, clinical provider. And also it prepares you in clinical practice and management practice. Policy changes and career advancements are possibilities. Also, some misconceptions we want to talk about is it doesn't always lead to a higher salary. It's based on what role you would choose as a DNP. If you're going into leadership, most likely. But if you're staying specifically in clinical practice, it might not because the only institution that I know that will pay based on education level is the government at this time, but some organizations may consider it.
Holly Hall, EdD: Okay, great. Now I'm going to move on to more practical concerns of the DNP. How long does it take to get a DNP? And then you can also, if you don't mind sharing, how long did it take you to get your DNP?
Gail Crump, DNP: DNP usually takes about three years. Sometimes it may take a little bit longer based on your capstone, your project, how long it takes you to get through your research. It took me, I think, two to three years to get mine completed.
Holly Hall, EdD: Okay. All right. How much does a DNP cost?
Gail Crump, DNP: The cost of a DNP can vary based on which academic facility you choose. Also, you want to pick one that's designed to work with you if you're going to continue to work. Sometimes the online costs differ from brick and mortar. So whichever one works best for you and investigating the organizations, institutions, and universities is the best idea to find out how much it costs. But on average, I'd say a medium cost was about anywhere from twenty seven to thirty thousand. And the good thing is some of them will even afford you scholarships to help pay for books and things like that.
Holly Hall, EdD: Great. Okay. Can I apply with a BSN?
Gail Crump, DNP: Some universities do have programs that you start on a BSN track. You go to your master's and then eventually your doctorate degree.
Holly Hall, EdD: Okay. All questions are important, but I have a really important question. Do I have to write a dissertation?
Gail Crump, DNP: For the DNP, it is called a capstone project. If you did a thesis at a master's level, it's much like completing that. So it's something that you're used to formulating. Most universities have a student handbook as part of their curriculum that they will provide to you that outlines what is needed to complete your capstone project. So the dissertation is more for your PhD.
Holly Hall, EdD: What areas can I specialize in for your doctorate degree?
Gail Crump, DNP: It's everything that basically, if you are a nurse anesthetist, if you are a family nurse practitioner, acute care, pediatrics, or psych, the DNP is open for all of the master level specialties. So you can specialize in any of those areas.
Holly Hall, EdD: Okay, great. We're just moving right along here. Which DNP programs are the best?
Gail Crump, DNP: Well, the AACN had put together their own ranking of the best DNP programs. So that is a resource that you can access and see if some of those universities are accessible to you based on cost and convenience. If they have brick and mortar only, or do they have online programs? But it's a good place to start.
Holly Hall, EdD: What other kinds of doctoral programs are there?
Gail Crump, DNP: There is the PhD, which is research based, and then the DNP. There were some older programs that might be phased out at most universities. There was a Doctor of Nursing and a Doctor of Nursing Science, but we're now down to two levels. You have your master's level and then your DNP or your PhD.
Holly Hall, EdD: So it is strictly personal then what program you choose. Okay. Yes, absolutely. Now I'm going to move on to questions about licensure. Do I need a DNP to become an APRN, Advanced Practice Nurse?
Gail Crump, DNP: At this moment, no, but the AACN goal for nursing is to move the level of practice to a doctoral degree, getting a terminal degree, much like we had a change in the healthcare community in hospitals for nursing to move from associate degrees and diploma nurses to everybody entering at the bachelor's degree level. So we're hoping that as a nurse practitioner, our entry level in the future would be a DNP.
Holly Hall, EdD: Okay. If my master's degree will get me an APRN license, why would I get a DNP too?
Gail Crump, DNP: A master's degree will get you practicing at this time professionally as any type of nurse practitioner in any specialty that you would like. But thinking about a DNP is more about if I want to maybe be in leadership and help facilitate research at some level working with PhDs and helping to change the practice of nursing, helping to drive that evidence based practice, also helping to build the structure of nursing. Where is nursing going in the future? So if you have a terminal degree, it's more likely you want to be involved in all of those things.
Holly Hall, EdD: Okay, piggybacking on the APRN, if I am already a licensed APRN, should I go back to school?
Gail Crump, DNP: That's a great question. With nursing, the AACN has already identified that their goal for nurses and for clinical practicing nurse practitioners is that their entry level be a doctorate degree so that we get a terminal degree. Also, if you want to be in leadership, it's a good idea to go back. If you want to help shape the practice of nursing, it's a good idea to have a terminal degree, and it's an opportunity to picture yourself as practicing at the top of your licensure.
Holly Hall, EdD: Alright, I think we're down to the final few questions. Lastly, I have a few questions concerning the impact on your practice. So can I continue to work while I am earning my DNP?
Gail Crump, DNP: Most programs absolutely. Like we alluded to earlier, most universities have brick and mortar and online. Most of your online programs are designed around professionals that are still practicing. So yes, I would say absolutely.
Holly Hall, EdD: That's significant. Will the scope of my practice change?
Gail Crump, DNP: I think with obtaining your DNP, your scope of practice won't change, but you'll be more well informed about functioning as a nurse practitioner or whichever specialty track that you're in. You'll know more about organizational leadership, but your clinical practice will not change. But as the AACN pointed out, the DNP does not alter your current scope of practice, but it helps us feel like we're practicing at the top of our scope of practice. And that is the goal of the future for entry level DNP. You can be comfortable saying, “I'm already there.” I don't have to worry about going back to school later in the future. If this is a good time for you, utilize that time. Go back now and get your DNP because they haven't changed their mind about wanting the DNP to be the entry level as a nurse practitioner in the future.
Holly Hall, EdD: Oh great. And the last question, can I use the DNP to teach at a university?
Gail Crump, DNP: Absolutely. It is an accepted qualification for teaching at a university at all levels.
Holly Hall, EdD: Okay. Well, this concludes the nursing research question and answer podcast. Hopefully we have answered your most anticipated questions. And thank you, Doctor Crump, for your most informed answers.
Gail Crump, DNP: Thank you for the opportunity.
Announcer: For more information on the essentials of doctoral education, please visit www.aacn.org or contact Dr. Patricia O'Malley at pomalley@PremierHealth.com or Dr. Holly Hall at hhall@premierhealth.com. Stay tuned for the next episode.
Doing Your DNP Project at Premier Health - Approval & Regulatory Guidance - Episode 3 - October 9, 2025