NURS 8200 The Doctoral Degree and Professional Nursing Practice
The pursuit of higher education is often linked to increased competency and knowledge within a specific field. In many fields, including nursing, a doctoral degree represents the highest level of educational attainment. Those who hold a doctoral degree are expected to demonstrate a significant level of competence (Dos Santos & Lo, 2018). This discussion centers on the role of a nurse with a practice doctorate (DNP) and the associated expectations, as well as how this relates to my personal motivation for pursuing a DNP and my experiences in addressing practice change or gaps in practice.
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Role of a Nurse with a Practice Doctorate
Nurses with a DNP play essential roles in the continuum of patient care. They engage in activities such as translating quality improvement outcomes, applying evidence-based research in clinical settings, and introducing innovative practices. In doing so, DNP-prepared nurses contribute to the creation of new knowledge (Trautman et al., 2018). This means they bring evidence-based research to systems and clinical settings, ultimately leading to improved health outcomes. They practice at the highest level, formulating strategies based on evidence to enhance health and patient results. Additionally, DNP-prepared nurses often assume executive and leadership positions within healthcare organizations. In these roles, they influence health policies, analyze cost-effective protocols, oversee patient care, and coordinate quality improvement initiatives.
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Expectations Associated With Obtaining a DNP
Obtaining a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree comes with specific expectations. DNP holders are expected to possess a high level of competence in the care environment, allowing them to effectively lead and coordinate care teams. Unlike individuals with PhDs, who typically focus on research, DNP degree holders concentrate on improving patient care and population health outcomes (Edwards et al., 2018). This implies that nurses with a DNP are well-equipped to implement evidence-based strategies aimed at enhancing health outcomes for both individual patients and the broader population. Nurse practitioners who do not hold a DNP often specialize in particular areas of patient care, such as pediatrics or family practice. However, the role of a DNP-prepared nurse goes beyond specialization and includes advanced responsibilities that help shape the direction of healthcare organizations.
“NURS 8200 – The Doctoral Degree and Professional Nursing Practice”
How The Considerations Relate to My Motivation to Pursue a DNP
Growing up, I have had a passion for seeing everyone lead a healthy life devoid of health complications. While doing my undergraduate degree, I realized that such goals cannot be achieved by solely focusing on what happens in the care environment but also what happens in the surroundings, such as policies and funding. One of my motivations to pursue a DNP is to get to executive and leadership positions where I can participate in effectively influencing healthcare policies and decisions. As such, the role of the DNP-prepared nurse resonates and relates well with my motivation. Translating research evidence into clinical practice also helps in improving patient outcomes (Trautman et al., 2018), which is among my motivations for pursuing a DNP. Indeed, with a higher degree, I believe I will accomplish such a goal more efficiently.
Among the top organization needs is to be leaders in providing improved patient care and enhance the patient experience. Improving the quality outcome to enhance patient experience requires that the healthcare organization addresses the quality gaps (Trautman et al., 2018). As such, my role as a DNP-prepared nurse will help in various ways to such effect. For instance, in assuming the leadership roles of leading and coordinating care teams, I will be able to effectively lead other nurses into a careful analysis of quality data, organizational standards, and government standards to identify gaps in practice. This will lead to a formulation of the most relevant and effective strategies to address such gaps and meet the goals. Besides, I will also be able to lead the organization into a literature search for evidence that can be translated into practice to address practice gaps or lead a practice change for patient quality improvement.
The experience I have Had With How our Organization addressed a Practice Change
Organizations usually strive to achieve the central aim of offering patient-optimized and improved patient care. As such, organizations either undertake steps to implement a practice change or address a gap in practice (Yip et al., 2019). I have had experience with the implementation of practice change within an organization. In one of the healthcare organizations I have worked in, there was a year where the rates of catheter-associated urinary tract infections were growing month after month. A decision was then made to explore initiatives to deal with the threatening growing rates of infection. One of the chosen strategies was using a protocol to evaluate patients and use indwelling catheters only when it is a must and ensuring that the time of usage of the catheters by the patients be reduced to as minimum as possible. As such, nurses accomplished a comprehensive one-week training on the protocols. After the training, the catheter use rates reduced by 20% as nurses were able to avoid unnecessary catheterization. Coupled with minimizing the duration of catheter use, the rates of infection dropped by an impressive 47% by the second month due to the practice change.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the doctoral degree prepares individuals for greater and more advanced professional roles. DNP-prepared nurses have a special role to play in the care environment, one of which is translating evidence into practice for improved patient outcomes. This week’s discussion has covered the roles of a DNP-prepared nurse, expectations associated with DNP, and an experience with a practice change implementation.
References
Dos Santos, L. M., & Lo, H. F. (2018). The Development of Doctoral Degree Curriculum in England: Perspectives from Professional Doctoral Degree Graduates. International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership, 13(6), n6. https://doi.org/10.22230/ijepl.2018v13n6a781.
Edwards, N. E., Coddington, J., Erler, C., & Kirkpatrick, J. (2018). The Impact of the Role of Doctor of Nursing PracticeNurses on Healthcare and Leadership. Medical Research Archives, 6(4). https://doi.org/10.18103/mra.v6i4.1734
Trautman, D. E., Idzik, S., Hammersla, M., & Rosseter, R. (2018). Advancing scholarship through translational research: The role of PhD and DNP prepared nurses. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(2). DOI: 10.3912/OJIN.Vol23No02Man02.
Yip, W., Fu, H., Chen, A. T., Zhai, T., Jian, W., Xu, R., … & Chen, W. (2019). 10 years of healthcare reform in China: progress and gaps in universal health coverage. The Lancet, 394(10204), 1192-1204. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(19)32136-1
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