Before deep project work begins, NURS9100 requires students to formally define exactly what kind of doctoral project they're undertaking, assemble the right committee to guide it, and document that definition in a project charter that will govern the work going forward.
Defining the doctoral project's nature and scope
NURS9100 clarifies the distinction between a DNP practice-improvement project (applied, implementation-focused, addressing a specific organizational problem) and a PhD-track dissertation (original research contributing new generalizable knowledge) — a distinction some students entering the doctoral phase haven't fully internalized. The course requires students to explicitly define their project's type, scope, and boundaries before proceeding further.
Committee formation and the project charter
The course covers forming a doctoral project committee — typically a chair with relevant content expertise and one or more additional committee members — and negotiating each member's expected role and level of involvement. Students then build a formal project charter documenting the problem statement, project type, committee composition, and a high-level timeline, serving as the foundational reference document for the entire project going forward.
Key topics in NURS9100
- Distinguishing DNP practice-improvement projects from PhD-track original research
- Defining project type, scope, and boundaries at the outset of doctoral project work
- Forming a doctoral project committee: chair selection and committee member roles
- Negotiating expected committee involvement and communication expectations
- Building a formal project charter as the foundational governing document
- Establishing a high-level project timeline aligned with program requirements
Working on your project charter or clarifying your doctoral project's scope and type?
Our doctoral nursing experts help build clear, well-defined NURS9100-level project charters.
Worked example: clarifying DNP vs. PhD-track project expectations
- Student's initial framing: "I want to study whether hand hygiene compliance interventions work in general" — framed as a generalizable research question
- Clarification needed: This framing suggests a PhD-style research question aiming for generalizable knowledge, not a DNP-style applied project
- Corrected DNP framing: "I will implement and evaluate a specific hand hygiene compliance intervention at my organization, addressing a documented local problem"
- Lesson: The corrected framing is applied, organization-specific, and implementation-focused — appropriately scoped for the DNP practice doctorate rather than a PhD-style generalizable research contribution
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Doctoral project charter and committee-formation assignments.
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Frequently asked questions
A DNP project and a PhD dissertation, while both doctoral-level scholarly work, have fundamentally different purposes and evaluation standards: a DNP project is applied and translational, aiming to implement and evaluate a specific practice change within a specific organizational context, while a PhD dissertation aims to generate original, generalizable knowledge that contributes to the broader scientific literature regardless of any single organization. NURS9100 addresses this distinction early because a student who frames their project with PhD-style generalizable research aspirations (aiming to prove an intervention "works" broadly, in a way that could be published as generalizable evidence) may design a project poorly matched to DNP program expectations and committee evaluation criteria — catching and correcting this framing at the very start prevents significant wasted effort designing a project around the wrong set of goals and standards.
A project charter for a nursing doctoral project typically includes a concise problem statement, an explicit statement of the project's type and scope (practice improvement vs. research), the composition of the project committee and their expected roles, and a high-level timeline aligned with program milestones and requirements. NURS9100 treats this charter as a governing reference document because doctoral projects unfold over an extended period with multiple people involved (the student, chair, and committee members), and having a clear, agreed-upon charter established early prevents later disagreements about scope creep, committee role expectations, or timeline misunderstandings — much like a project charter in professional project management formally authorizes and bounds a project before significant resources are invested, a doctoral project charter formally establishes what the committee has agreed to guide and evaluate before deep project work begins.