Emory University's Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing is ranked No. 4 among the nation’s best graduate nursing schools, according to U.S. News & World Report's 2020 America's Best Graduate Schools guide. As a longstanding leader in nursing education and research, the School of Nursing has maintained its place in the top five nursing schools since 2017. The school is also ranked No. 9 for its Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program and is highly rated in three specialty areas.
The school’s specialty areas ranked:
No. 10 in Health Systems Leadership
No. 15 in Family Nurse Practitioner
No. 15 in Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner
"I am thrilled to say that our reputation as a top nursing school in the nation remains strong,” says Linda McCauley, PhD, RN, dean of the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing. “Our ranking in this competitive process continues to be a reflection of the outstanding dedication and achievements of our faculty, staff, students, clinical partners and alumni. Knowing that we have so much incredible, world-changing education and research going on at the School of Nursing is a great motivator for us to keep reaching higher.”
The announcement marks another point of pride in what has already been a momentous year for the School of Nursing. In 2018, the school garnered $17.9 million in research funding – the highest single-year of research funding amount in its history. Funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) accounted for $8.9 million of this total. Emory's School of Nursing is now No. 3 in NIH funding among U.S. nursing schools, up from No. 4 the previous year. The school has been a top five nursing school in NIH research funding for the last four years. Recent graduates also demonstrated excellence in clinical preparation by attaining exceptionally high pass rates on board certification exams. The School of Nursing’s overall NCLEX pass rate was 98.8 percent last year.
The U.S. News & World Report rankings, conducted annually, are a weighted average of 14 indicators including research activity, faculty credentials, achievements, student grade point average, acceptance rates, peer assessment, and others. This year’s survey included 259 schools offering master’s degrees and 189 offering the DNP.