An easy-to-access QR code for reporting workplace violence in the ED.

A universal “how-to” to streamline preceptors’ mentoring of nursing students in the hospital. And protected sleep “prescriptions” for fragile ICU patients in the wee hours so they can regain their strength with help from at least a few REM cycles.

Every Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) student designs and deploys a scholarly practice project as the culmination of their learning. In addition to formally presenting their projects in the Rotunda dome room, DNPs are also required to submit their work to a scholarly journal for publication—even if they’re sometimes dubious about the possibility.

“Publishing was one of those things that I didn’t think would ever happen to me,” said nurse practitioner Kristin Long (DNP ’24), whose work was published in the Journal of Critical Care in April 2025. “Since it, though, I’ve been getting emails, having conversations with medical directors, even hospital marketing. People are asking, ‘How can we bring this to my floor?’ It’s really re-sparked my interest. I wanted to do this for the patients, and I did.”

This is Long’s creation of a new sleep promoting protocol she created as a DNP student. Initially deployed in the medical ICU where she worked both day and night shifts, the work has lately caught the interest of people across the hospital curious about prescribing sleep orders in EPIC and dangling the blue owl “Do Not Disturb” sign outside of patients’ rooms.

The experience got Long, now an acute care nurse practitioner on UVA Health University Medical Center’s third floor units, raising awareness about how to forge change using evidence—which is exactly the life, explained associate professor Beth Quatrara (MSN ’97, DNP ’10), of a nurse with a DNP.

DNP projects “allow students to address real-world issues,” said Quatrara. “They also embed students immediately in a team. Instead of coming in and saying, ‘Here’s what I want to do, everyone get on board with me,’ they’re coming in to fulfill a need. There is no project that’s done in a silo; from the get-go, DNPs work in teams, every day, all the time.”

DNP capstones like Long’s don’t gather digital dust in Libra; they’re a central way to bring evidence-based change and improvements to units’ challenges.

And when units need help and ideas, they turn to DNP graduates and students like Long, Ross Scallan (MSN ’23, DNP ’24), and Maureen DeSena (DNP ’25), whose scholarly work is making meaningful change on military bases, in academic journals, through bedside education of nursing students, and beyond.