Writing DNP capstone projects is one of the key challenges experienced by Ph.D. level nursing students. The projects are one of the primary requirements for successfully completing the Ph.D. level. We have received several requests from scholars from different universities such as Walden, Grand Canyon University, Johns Hopkins University, and California State University, among others to assist them with DNP capstone writing help. Therefore, we challenged an expert from our DNP capstone writing service to create a guide that can benefit scholars who may be experiencing challenges working on their projects.
What is a DNP Capstone Project?
First, let’s get to the basics of a DNP capstone project. These are scholarly projects through which nursing students demonstrate their ability to translate knowledge into practice. The projects are supposed to show how problems in the nursing environment can be solved through implementation of evidence-based practice which has become a big deal in the nursing profession. Nurses are encouraged to adopt evidence-based practice by incorporating patient values, clinical expertise, and relevant research findings in care delivery. Students are at liberty to choose the area of practice to focus on while working on their projects. Luckily, the scholars have limitless choices owing to the wide breadth of the nursing practice. For instance, they can focus on topics such as diabetes management, discharge planning, patient monitoring, patient-provider communication, and pain management, among others.
DNP projects can exist in different forms including practice portfolios investigating the effects or outcomes of nursing practice, program evaluations, quality improvement projects, practice model evaluations, and consulting projects. These projects share a similarity in that they call for planning, implementation, and evaluation. As such, the key focus should be identifying an evidence-based practice that could be implemented in the nursing environment to improve patient outcomes and care delivery. For instance, one can assess how the implementation of team triage can be used to improve timeliness and patient flow in the emergency department. The key basic things to remember while working on a DNP capstone project include:
- Identify a problem in the nursing environment
- Identify an evidence-based practice for solving the problem
- Implement the practice
- Evaluate the outcomes
DNP projects or other forms of nursing capstone projects primarily test student’s expertise in reflective practice, expertise in area of interest, independent practice inquiry, the capability to assess, translate, and apply research evidence to improve care, organizational and systems leadership skills, as well as knowledge on advanced healthcare policy, ethics, and law. Now that you have the basics of what DNP capstone projects entail, let’s go through what should be done in each chapter. Commonly, the projects should have five key chapters: introduction, literature review, methodology, findings, and summary, conclusions, implications, and recommendations.
Writing Chapter One of a DNP Capstone Project
Chapter one lays the foundation for the entire capstone project. The chapter covers the background of the project by outlining how the issue being investigated has evolved over time. For instance, if you are focusing on antimicrobial resistance, you may want to present an argument indicating that patients have developed drug resistance against antibiotics over time. You should support your argument with statistics on antimicrobial resistance from reputable journal articles. The background section should inform the problem statement which subsequently informs the purpose statement. This shows that the sections of a DNP capstone project are related and should align accordingly.
The problem statement should focus on the specific practice problem being investigated in a particular healthcare setting. This means that scholars have to support their assertions with organization-specific data in order to bring out the practice-gap in a particular healthcare setting such as a hospital. For instance, while focusing on antimicrobial resistance, you may want to present organization-specific data on number of patients who are resistant to antibiotics. Another example is when focusing on patient discharge delays, you want to present hospital-specific data on number of delayed discharges. Additionally, if your focus is patient falls, you have to do the same by seeking patient fall data per 1000 days for the hospital where you seek to implement your quality improvement project. The problem statement of a DNP capstone project should also identify the population affected by the issue under investigation and how the project would contribute towards solving the problem. The key take-home points while working on the DNP problem statement are:
- Provide organization-specific data supporting the existence of the problem under investigation.
- Capture the population affected by the problem
- Identify how the project solves the problem
If you need assistance with DNP capstone problem statement writing contact us via live chat or our email and we will advise on the best approach for developing the section.
The purpose statement should be a declarative proclamation of what the capstone project seeks to accomplish and should be a reflection of the problem statement. It should also capture the project design, population, variables (quantitative) or phenomenon (qualitative), and the geographic location where the project is to be implemented. For example, “The purpose of this quantitative, pre-test-post-test quality improvement project is to determine the effect of diabetes management education intervention on self-management knowledge in a medicine unit of a primary care hospital in Los Angeles, California.” The purpose statement is followed by the clinical question which should adopt the Population, Intervention, Comparison, Time (PICOT) format. For instance, based on the example above, the clinical question would be:
Q1: Among diabetic patients in a medicine unit (P), would diabetes management education (I), compared with current practice (C), self-management knowledge (O), within a 3-month period (T)?
After the clinical question, you should outline how the project will advance the scientific knowledge in relation to topic under investigation. For instance, you can indicate how the study findings will close the existing knowledge gap. Additionally, you should identify the theoretical framework that would serve as the foundation of the project and outline how the capstone will advance the theory or model. This should be followed by a discussion on the significance of the capstone project in relation to practice. For instance, you can highlight how the project will advance the application of evidence-practice in clinical settings.
Specifying the Methodology and Design of a DNP Project
Chapter one also captures the methodology that would be used in the study. This means that DNP students have to determine whether their topic is suited by a quantitative or qualitative methodology and justify their choice using research methods literature. Quantitative methods are suitable when researchers want to establish the effect or impact of independent variables on dependent variables. Quantitative research methods are also adopted when determining the correlation or relationship between variables. On the other hand, qualitative methods are suitable in scenarios where DNP students seek to answer how or why questions. After identifying the research methods, you should identify the specific design that would be adopted in the DNP project under the nature of the project. For instance, a quantitative project may adopt quasi-experimental (pre-test and post-test) design. Qualitative projects can adopt generic qualitative design and phenomenology design among others. The DNP student should then proceed to the definition of terms where you define the key terms used in the study.
Assumptions and Limitations in a DNP Capstone Project
Under this section, the DNP student should capture the theoretical, methodological, and topic-specific assumptions. The theoretical assumptions stem from the model or theoretical framework that is adopted in the project. For instance, if a project is based on Lewin’s 3-step model of organizational change one of the key assumption could be the implementation of the evidence-based practice would not be hampered by resistance from nurses and physicians in the clinical settings. The methodological assumption arise from the research methods adopted in a DNP project. For example, in case a student uses quantitative methods, s/he can assume that the project findings would be generalizable to other clinical settings. Topic-related assumptions are based on the variables under investigation. For example, when investigating whether discharge planning would improve patient discharge process, it would be okay to assume that discharge planning would reduce delays.
Limitations are the factors that may hamper the project, but the principal investigator has no control over them. Limitations may be associated with the research methods adopted in the project such as quantitative design. For instance, when a convenience sample is adopted in a DNP capstone project, it limits generalizability of the findings due to lack of randomization. Besides, in cases where quasi-experimental designs are adopted in such projects, they limit inferences regarding causality (such inferences are less definitive in quasi-experimental research). Additionally, quasi-experimental design reduces the internal validity and may create bias due to lack of a control group. Bias may also arise due to the influence of confounding variables which may have an effect on the dependent variable. Delimitations are aspects of the project over which the DNP student has control. For instance, confirmation bias can be overcome through measures such as discussing findings that support and disapprove one’s hypotheses rather than just focusing on those that support them. Importantly, the principal investigator working on their DNP capstone projects should provide explanations associated with each limitation or delimitations.
The last section of Chapter One of a DNP Capstone Project should summarize the chapter. Here, you should capture the key points in the chapter such as the background, the problem statement or practice gap, the purpose of the project, the methodology, and the limitations. The section should also provide a transition to chapter 2. The summary should further provide a preview of the rest of the chapters.
Writing a Literature Review for a DNP or DPI Capstone Project
The literature review chapter is the longest section in a DNP or DPI capstone project. The section is usually 30 pages long in DPI projects though it may vary in other versions of DNP projects. The chapter lays down the theoretical framework for such projects by reviewing previous findings on the chosen topic. The introduction section of the chapter should first highlight the background of the study, restate the problem statement, and outline how the literature review was conducted, and provide a preview of how the chapter is organized.
This should be followed by the theoretical foundation/framework or conceptual framework. Here, DNP students should look for theories which align with their projects. For instance, a quality improvement project could be guided by Lewin’s 3-Step Change Theory. The DNP student should indicate how the problem under investigation relates to the theory by using seminal sources. Additionally, the student should indicate how the theory relates with the clinical questions adopted in the project. The student should also capture how the theory has been applied in similar or other projects and how their project would advance the adopted theory or model.
The theoretical framework is followed by the review of the literature. Here, DNP students review, describe, and critique past studies on their topic. Students should make use of the following tips to produce stellar DNP/DPI project literature reviews:
- Use academic databases such as EBSCOhost, ProQuest, and Emerald to search for credible, peer-reviewed journal articles.
- Focus on articles published within the last 5 years to ensure relevance.
- Do not be overly descriptive, but also adopt a critical analysis approach by critiquing the research method adopted in the studies and highlighting their limitations and strengths.
- Ensure each section within the review of literature has an introductory paragraph explaining the importance of the sub-topic in relation to the DNP project.
- Ensure each section has a summary paragraph that compares the literature findings, captures the emerging themes and their relevance to the project.
- Eighty-five (85%) of the reviewed sources should be peer-reviewed journal articles.
The last section of the Literature Review of a DNP Project should be the summary. This section captures the important points in the literature and bring out the knowledge gap that would be address by the project.
Working on Chapter 3 Methodology of a DNP Capstone Project
This chapter outlines the research procedures used to implement a DNP project. The chapter captures the project methodology (either quantitative or qualitative), the project design, population and sample selection, instrumentation (quantitative projects) or sources of data (qualitative projects), validity, reliability, data collection procedures, data analysis procedures, ethical considerations, and limitations. The last segment summarizes the chapter. DNP students should consider the following tips when working on DNP methodology chapter:
- Justify your choice of research methods. For instance, indicate why qualitative or quantitative research methods are most suitable for your project.
- Use published data collection instruments. At the PhD level, students are discouraged from developing their own data collection tools.
- Use published studies to justify the validity and reliability of the data collection instruments.
- Outline the ethical research principles that would be adhered to during project implementation. For example, Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, informed consent, privacy and confidentiality, beneficence and non-maleficence.
- Outline and justify the limitations related to the methods, sample, instrumentation, data collection process and analysis.
Tips for Developing Results Chapters of a DNP Capstone Project
The purpose of the results chapter is to highlight the collected data, the data analysis procedures adopted, and the descriptive and inferential results. DNP students should open up the chapter by restating the problem statement, the methodology, the clinical questions, and what the chapter covers. This is followed by the descriptive data whereby one outlines the participants’ demographics such as number of subjects, gender, age, education level, employment, and nursing experience among others. The data can be presented using organizers such as graphs, tables, or charts. If you use tables, they should be formatted in APA.
The descriptive data is followed by a recap of the data analysis procedures: The section should cover the following:
• A detailed description of the data analysis procedures.
• An explanation of how the raw data relates to the clinical questions(s) asked in the project for a quantitative project.
• Explain how data and findings were organized by chronology of phenomena, by themes and patterns, or by other approaches as deemed appropriate according for a qualitative project.
• A discussion of the identification of sources of error and their effect on the data.
• An explanation and justification of any differences in why the data analysis section does not match what was approved in Chapter 3 (if appropriate).
• An analysis of the reliability and validity of the data in statistical terms, for quantitative projects.
• A description of the approaches used to ensure validity and reliability, for qualitative projects.
The results section presents the inferential data. The section is the heart of the DNP capstone project as it shows how the collected data answers the clinical questions. It captures the results of the preferred statistical tests adopted in the project. For instance, the t-tests showing the results for the pre-test and post-test should be captured under the results section. The results can be presented using tables, graphs, and charts. In case, a DNP student is conducting a qualitative project, the results should be presented in the form of themes which should be arranged according to the adopted research questions. Thematic analysis focuses on the patterns that appear most from the collected data. The patterns are arranged into narrative form in relation to the research questions. The last section is the summary which presents a concise synopsis of the project results and a transition to chapter 5.
Chapter 5 of a DNP Capstone Project
The chapter should provide a comprehensive summary of the entire project report. It should highlight the importance of the topic and how the project contributes to the body of knowledge on the topic. The chapter should also capture the conclusions, implications, and recommendations arising from the project results. The key tips to consider while writing Chapter 5 of a DNP Capstone Project include:
- Do not introduce new data or citations.
- Emphasize the key, take home points from the project
- Provide a comprehensive summary of the entire project
- Summarize the findings and conclusions
- Capture the theoretical, practical, and future implications.
- Highlight the recommendations for future projects and recommendations for practice.
The next section of the DNP Capstone Report should be the references. The sources used in the report should be presented in alphabetical order. Follow APA guidelines while listing different types of sources such as books and journal articles. For instance, DOIs or download links should be included in the references for journal articles while book titles should be italicized. The last section of the report should present the appendices such as IRB approval, permission letter, and informed consent form.