Additionally, two of the School’s master’s specialties were ranked on reputation -- Nursing Administration is listed 6th and Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner 14th.For the first time, this year U.S. News & World Report ranked Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Programs. In this first-ever ranking, the UAB School of Nursing DNP Program ranked 18th nationally.
UAB School of Nursing Dean and Fay B. Ireland Chair Doreen Harper, PhD, RN, FAAN, says she is pleased with the master’s ranking and the new DNP ranking U.S. News is offering.
“U.S. News & World Report develops its ranking from extensive data collected about nursing schools nationwide and UAB School of Nursing specifically,” Harper said. “Our consistent top ranking places UAB School of Nursing graduate programs among the best in the nation and is a tribute to our exceptional faculty, staff, students and alumni.”
For the U.S. News Best Nursing Schools rankings, the 519 nursing schools with master's or doctoral programs accredited in late summer 2015 by either the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education or the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing were surveyed. Of those, 259 responded to the statistical survey and provided enough data to be included in the rankings of nursing master's programs. In addition, 149 schools provided enough statistical data to be included in the new ranking of Doctor of Nursing Practice programs.
Both the master's and DNP rankings are based on 14 indicators. Seven ranking indicators are used in both the master's and DNP ranking models. The seven common factors are four research activity indicators; faculty credentials; the percentage of faculty members with important achievements; and faculty participation in nursing practice. The other seven indicators in each ranking use measures that are specific to each degree type.
Both rankings take into account the ratings of academic experts. To collect this data, nursing school deans and deans of graduate studies were asked to rate the academic quality for both master's and DNP programs at nursing schools separately on a single survey instrument. The statistical data used for both rankings were collected from nursing schools using a single online statistical survey in fall 2015 and early 2016.
The nursing specialty rankings are based solely on assessments by nursing school deans and deans of graduate studies who identified up to 10 schools offering the best programs in each specialty area.
