NURS9020 asks students to translate their evidence base and theoretical framework into an actual, executable intervention design — specifying exactly what will be done, by whom, when, and how success will be measured.
Designing the specific intervention
NURS9020 requires a detailed intervention design specifying the exact components of the proposed practice change, how it will be delivered (training format, tools, protocols), and how it addresses the barriers identified through the theoretical framework selected in NURS9010. This design must be specific enough that another practitioner could understand exactly what implementing the project would involve.
Implementation planning and project proposal development
The course covers building a full implementation timeline, identifying resource requirements, and defining evaluation metrics that will determine whether the project achieved its intended outcomes. This work culminates in a comprehensive project proposal document, prepared for formal committee review and approval before the student can proceed to the implementation phase in the following courses.
Key topics in NURS9020
- Designing a specific, executable intervention addressing the identified practice problem
- Building an implementation timeline with clear milestones and responsible parties
- Identifying and securing necessary resources for project implementation
- Defining outcome evaluation metrics tied directly to the project's intended impact
- Assembling the complete DNP project proposal document
- Preparing for and responding to committee proposal review feedback
Working on your DNP intervention design or full project proposal?
Our doctoral nursing experts build NURS9020-level intervention designs and project proposals with genuine implementation rigor.
Worked example: a specific, executable intervention design
- Vague design (weak): "Educate staff on hand hygiene importance"
- Specific design (strong): "Implement a peer-observer hand hygiene audit program with real-time feedback, weekly unit-level compliance dashboards, and monthly recognition for the highest-compliance shift, over a 12-week pilot period"
- Why it works: The strong version specifies the exact mechanism (peer observation, not just education), the feedback loop (real-time and dashboard-based), the incentive structure (recognition), and a defined timeframe — giving committee reviewers and eventual implementers a concrete, evaluable plan
Get Help With NURS9020
DNP intervention design and project proposal assignments.
Place Your OrderView All ServicesRelated courses
Frequently asked questions
A DNP project's ultimate value lies not just in personally implementing a change once, but in producing a well-documented practice improvement approach that could potentially be sustained, replicated, or scaled by others after the doctoral student's direct involvement ends — this requires a level of specificity in the intervention design that goes well beyond a general description of intent. NURS9020 requires this specificity because a vague intervention design ("improve staff education") gives committee reviewers no way to assess whether the proposed approach is likely to actually work, gives future practitioners no clear blueprint to replicate the intervention, and makes it much harder for the student themselves to develop a genuine, measurable evaluation plan — you can't measure the success of an intervention you haven't clearly defined in the first place.
The theoretical or conceptual framework selected in NURS9010 (such as an implementation science framework identifying likely barriers to adoption) should directly shape the specific components of the intervention design developed in NURS9020 — if the framework analysis identified that lack of visible leadership engagement was a common failure point for similar interventions, the intervention design should explicitly build in a mechanism for leadership visibility and participation, not simply proceed as if that barrier didn't exist. NURS9020 teaches students to maintain this direct, traceable connection between framework and design because a common weakness in doctoral project proposals is selecting an appropriate framework in one section of the proposal and then designing an intervention that doesn't actually reflect or address what that framework's analysis revealed — committee reviewers specifically look for this coherence between the theoretical grounding and the practical intervention plan.