Advance clinical excellence and executive leadership in today’s complex, evidence-based healthcare environment.
The DNP–MBA joint degree prepares nurse leaders to bridge clinical practice and business strategy—equipping graduates to drive innovation, improve outcomes, and lead across healthcare systems. Offered through the Conway School of Nursing in partnership with The Busch School of Business, this program integrates advanced nursing practice with foundational and applied business competencies in leadership, finance, and operations.

  • Length of Program: In as few as 8 semesters

  • Online Program

DNP-MBA Joint Degree Program Outcomes 

Graduates of the DNP-MBA Joint Degree Program program are expected to achieve the following outcomes upon completion:

1: Knowledge for Nursing Practice


Develop, lead, and disseminate transformational interventions demonstrating expert critical thinking and clinical reasoning, including knowledge from nursing, other disciplines, theology, philosophy, and the other liberal arts and natural and social sciences to make judgments and create innovations in advanced nursing practice/specialty level for the common good.

2: Person-Centered Care


Design, create, implement, and evaluate models of care that support, holistic, individualized, just, compassionate, coordinated, evidence-based, developmentally appropriate, and inclusive care that is respectful of the dignity of the human person, promotes human flourishing and is consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church. 

3: Population Health


Develop evidence-based and collaborative strategies that promote health, prevent disease, and manage risks, considering social determinants of health, advocating for the improvement of equitable health outcomes, across the continuum of care and levels of prevention through both traditional and non-traditional partnerships from diverse communities, public health, industry, academia, health care, local government entities, and others.

4: Scholarship for the Nursing Discipline 


Generate, synthesize, translate, apply, and disseminate nursing knowledge to improve health and transform health care.

5: Quality and Safety


Addresses clinical quality issues using innovation principles and processes, improvement science and evidence to assure accountability for a culture of patient, provider, and work environment safety through both system effectiveness and individual performance.

6: Interprofessional Partnerships


Leads, implements, and evaluates interprofessional teamwork and collaboration with colleagues, patients, families, and communities that value engagement with the city, nation, Church and world through participatory decision-making related to healthcare needs to innovate, optimize, and improve health outcomes within advanced nursing specialty practice.

7: Systems-Based Practice


Design and evaluate innovative strategies for coordinated cost-effective, proactive, and efficient care within complex healthcare systems based on Catholic values to provide safe, quality, and equitable care to diverse populations.

8: Informatics and Healthcare Technologies


Enhances and advances   information and communication technologies and informatics processes to provide care respecting the dignity of the human person and to guide clinical decision making to improve outcomes in the delivery of safe, high-quality and efficient healthcare services that align with best practices and professional and regulatory requirements.

9: Professionalism


Cultivate professional development in others grounded in Catholic social teaching, inclusive of honesty, integrity, accountability, a collaborative disposition, and ethical behavior reflective of the Catholic identity and nursing’s unique characteristics and values.

10: Personal, Professional, and Leadership Development


Influence  change guided by leadership principles and theories, demonstrating a commitment to lifelong personal resilience and whole person well-being, intellectual curiosity, and professional growth and development.