The DNP or PhD: Understanding Your Options

Webinar Overview

Choosing a doctoral program aligned with your selected career path is essential to achieve your goals. This webinar will discuss the differences in two doctoral degree programs, the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), and the career paths associated graduates with each degree.

This Webinar is hosted by the Graduate Nursing Student Academy (GNSA). For more information on the GNSA, visit www.aacn.nche.edu/students/gnsa.

Webinar Speakers

Robin Newhouse, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
Professor and Chair
University of Maryland, School of Nursing

Dr. Newhouse is professor and chair, Organizational Systems and Adult Health at University of Maryland School of Nursing. She is a leading expert in adoption and implementation of evidence-based practices in acute care settings. As a health services researcher she studies healthcare processes and related patient outcomes, and is currently tailoring an intervention for people with heart failure in two rural hospitals. Dr. Newhouse is a member of the AcademyHealth Board, the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s (ANCC) Research Council, serves on two Institute of Medicine Committees (Standing Committee on Credentialing Research in Nursing and Treatment of Cardiac Arrest: Current Status and Future Directions), and is Chair of the Methodology Committee of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) .

Shannon Idzik, DNP, CRNP
Assistant Professor and Director
University of Maryland, School of Nursing

Dr. Idzik is an assistant professor and director, Doctor of Nursing Practice program at University of Maryland School of Nursing. She maintains a faculty practice as a nurse practitioner in the University of Maryland Medical Center Emergency Department. She is active in the professional community, serving as a Collegiate Commission on Nursing Education (CCNE) site evaluator and is leading recommendation #1 on the Maryland Action Coalition on the Future of Nursing. In addition to being an active member of many organizations, she is on the executive board for the Nurse Practitioner Association of Maryland (NPAM) . She has recently been appointed to the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission, Physician Alignment and Engagement workgroup and to the AACN Task Force on Implementation of the DNP.

Meg Johantgen, PhD, RN
Associate Professor and Interim Assistant Dean
University of Maryland, School of Nursing

Dr. Johantgen is an associate professor and Interim Assistant Dean for the PhD program at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. Her research has focused on measurement of health care quality from administrative data and she helped design the first version of the HCUP Quality Indicators. Since joining the University of Maryland, Dr. Johantgen has collaborated with faculty on several federally funded research projects to study the influence of health policies and regulation on patient outcomes. She has served as chair of more than 20 PhD dissertations and 8 DNP capstone projects. Dr. Johantgen teaches research methods, data management, and biostatistics in the PhD and DNP programs. As a member of the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Research Council, she has explored the influence of individual and organizational credentialing on outcomes.