UCCS DNP experience hours and the institutional mentor
UCCS's DNP Project Handbook sets a floor of 540 DNP experience hours for post-master's students: 45 in NURS 7030, 45 in NURS 7200 and 450 shared across the five project courses, NURS 8050 to NURS 8054. They are project and leadership hours rather than NP preceptor hours, and most of them are tied to the quality-improvement project you carry out at an outside organization, guided by an institutional mentor who works there.
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Where the 540 hours sit
The post-master's DNP is 33 credits and fully online. Of its courses, seven carry experience hours; the rest of the DNP core (NURS 7010, NURS 7070, NURS 7080, NURS 7090 and NURS 7120) carries none. Section X of the DNP Project Handbook lays the hours out this way.
| Course | Title | Credits | Experience hours | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|---|
NURS 7030 | Advanced Healthcare Policy, Ethics, and Law | 4 | 45 | Hours "in healthcare settings" |
NURS 7200 | Organizational Systems Leadership | 4 | 45 | Leadership hours |
NURS 8050 | DNP Project I | 3 | Share of 450 | Opens the project series |
NURS 8051 | DNP Project II | 2 | Share of 450 | Proposal defense, Friday of week 14 of spring |
NURS 8052 | DNP Project III | 1 | Share of 450 | IRB review, implementation begins |
NURS 8053 | DNP Project IV | 2 | Share of 450 | Implementation |
NURS 8054 | DNP Project V | 3 | Share of 450 | Evaluation, dissemination, final defense Friday of week 13 of spring |
| Total | 540 minimum |
Two details are not in print: how the 450 project hours divide among the five courses, and whether NURS 7030 or NURS 7200 comes first. Your degree plan and your DNP Project Course Faculty settle both.
Experience hours are a different kind of hour
The handbook says DNP experience hours "typically do not involve direct patient care." The handbook pairs them with an institutional mentor rather than an NP preceptor, and the work is organizational: studying a practice problem, planning a change, carrying it out through the project courses and measuring the result.
That is why the NP practicum rules about who may precept (NPs, MDs, DOs or PAs with two years of experience, 200 hours with an NP) belong to the NP track and not to this page. Post-master's DNP students already hold national certification, and their hours build the doctoral project rather than a new clinical role.
One point UCCS leaves open: the handbook assigns NURS 7030 its hours "in healthcare settings" but publishes nothing on who arranges those settings for NURS 7030 and NURS 7200. Ask the course faculty at the start of each course, and have a setting in mind before they ask you.
The institutional mentor and your project site
The mentor is the one outside person the DNP depends on. The handbook describes an institutional mentor who is "required to be working in the site where the DNP QI Project is being implemented," and it puts the first move on you: the student must "Initiate contact with a DNP project institutional mentor in their clinical setting."
- Pick an organization with a real problem to studyA clinic, health system, agency or practice where a quality-improvement project can run for several semesters.
- Find the mentor inside itSomeone who works at that site, as the handbook requires, and who can support the project all the way through
NURS 8054. - Secure the Letter of CooperationThe handbook also requires "a written Letter of Cooperation with the Outside Organization."
- Move through the project coursesProposal in
NURS 8051, IRB and a start on implementation inNURS 8052, implementation inNURS 8053, then evaluation and dissemination inNURS 8054.
On the UCCS side, the DNP Project Course Faculty guide the project itself. The mentor is your link inside the organization itself.
Spring defenses shape the timeline
Both project defenses fall in the spring semester. The proposal defense happens on the Friday of week 14 of spring, inside NURS 8051, and the final defense on the Friday of week 13 of spring, inside NURS 8054. The handbook refers to defenses held via video teleconference, which suits an online program whose students live across several states.
Because those dates are fixed to spring, a mentor or site that falls through late can push a defense into the following spring rather than back a few weeks. The UCCS program page describes the finished product as "a quality-improvement project consisting of a paper, poster, and presentation." Semester dates for the current year are on the academic calendar page.
A failed project course must be retaken "the next year," so a stalled site or a missing Letter of Cooperation can cost a full year.
Logging, grades and the time limit
- DNP experience hours are logged in Medatrax, the same system NP students use for patient logs, and they are audited before graduation. The Medatrax page covers the system itself.
- Each project course,
NURS 8050throughNURS 8054, needs a B or better. - Two failing grades anywhere in the program lead to dismissal. The wider graduate rules are on grades and progression.
- The DNP must be finished within seven years, per both UCCS DNP program pages.
Keep your Medatrax entries current week by week, with the date, the site and what the hours produced. An audit at the end of the program is a poor time to rebuild a semester of project work from memory.
BSN to DNP: two kinds of hours in one plan
BSN to DNP students carry both loads: the NP track's precepted clinical hours and the same 540 DNP experience hours. The DNP Project Handbook states the total as "a minimum of 1170 total hours (630 clinical hours and 540 DNP experience hours)." That handbook was approved in September 2023, before UCCS raised NP clinical hours to 770 for students starting in Fall 2026 or later.
If you started before Fall 2026, the handbook's figure matches the practicum rules. If you started in Fall 2026 or later, the 08/2026 practicum handbooks set your clinical side at 770, and your degree plan is the document to confirm the combined total. The BSN to DNP guide walks through the NP courses.
Why DNP students choose us
A DNP project lives or dies on its site. We search for an organization where your project question fits, in the community where you live, and for a mentor who works there and has the standing to support a multi-semester project. We confirm their interest before you invest a semester of planning in them.
Then we gather what the college's process asks for: the organization's details, the mentor's name, role and credentials, and the contact who can sign the Letter of Cooperation. For BSN to DNP students, the same placement desk also finds the NP preceptors for each clinical course. UCCS and your DNP Project Course Faculty approve the project; we make sure what reaches them is complete from the start. Use the form below to tell us your project idea and your region.
Questions UCCS students ask
Do UCCS DNP experience hours need a preceptor?
Not in the NP sense. The DNP Project Handbook ties the project hours to an institutional mentor who works at the site where your quality-improvement project runs, and it says these hours typically do not involve direct patient care. Precepted NP clinical hours apply only to BSN to DNP students, through their NP track courses.
Who finds the DNP project site and mentor at UCCS?
You do. The handbook says the student must initiate contact with an institutional mentor in their clinical setting and secure a written Letter of Cooperation with the outside organization. Your DNP Project Course Faculty guide the project itself, and they are the right people to ask whether a proposed site and mentor suit your topic.
How are DNP experience hours tracked at UCCS?
In Medatrax, the same platform graduate nursing students use for compliance documents and clinical logs. The DNP Project Handbook says the hours are audited before graduation, so each entry should match what you actually did and when. Keep notes from each site day so the log stays accurate across the several semesters of the project series.
When do UCCS DNP students defend their projects?
Both defenses are in spring. The proposal defense is on the Friday of week 14 of the spring semester during NURS 8051, and the final defense is on the Friday of week 13 of spring during NURS 8054. The DNP Project Handbook refers to defenses held via video teleconference; confirm the format for your cohort with your course faculty.
Which states can UCCS DNP students live in?
The DNP program pages carry no state list of their own. They ask for a current unrestricted RN license from an approved state listed on the college's website. For BSN to DNP students doing NP clinical hours, the graduate 14-state rule matters most; the approved states page sets it out, and admissions can confirm how it applies to you.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against UCCS's catalog, practicum handbooks and college pages. Your degree plan, the handbook for your cohort and the Graduate Clinical Practicum Coordinator have the final word.
UCCS asks you to find your clinical hours where you live. Let us run that search.
Tell us your UCCS track, your next clinical course and where you live. We find preceptors who fit the course and prepare the details your Clinical Site Sheet needs, early enough for the agreement to be signed before the semester.
- Preceptors matched to the course: pediatrics for
NURS 6900, acute and chronic care forNURS 6915andNURS 6925, psychiatric prescribers forNURS 6801toNURS 6803 - Credentials, license, certification and the site's signer ready for the Clinical Site Sheet
- In Colorado Springs, along the Front Range, or in any of UCCS's approved states
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