Closing the Gap Between Research and Practice, Research Paper Example

Introduction

Becoming a DNP leader involves both personal and professional development. One will need to become a change agent and capable of influencing organizational behaviors, while mastering research and evidence based practice implementation methods. As Vincent et al. (2011) states, DNP leaders are both practitioners and researchers, and lead through their principles, beliefs, as well as professional knowledge. The below reflection will focus on the main competencies I believe that a successful DNP nursing leader needs to gain in order to make positive changes within health care organizations.

You Decide Reflection

The main competency that I would like to focus on developing is organizations and systems leadership to deliver evidence-based quality improvement within my practice. In particular, I would like to review the prevention, care, and intervention frameworks that are currently in place in maternity care, in order to implement recent research findings and evidence into the organization. Nichols et al. (2014) reflected upon the future roles and competencies of DNP prepared nurses in health care. The authors found that the US health care system is complex and constantly changing, therefore, changes need to be introduced on the systems level. For this, a DNP ready nurse will need to obtain knowledge about the target population’s characteristics, needs, and most common concerns. This way, they can not only introduce evidence based practice in individual areas of care, but also change systems to reduce health disparities and serve diverse populations better. I would like to build an active collaboration with patient panel members, nursing organizations, researchers, and policymakers in order to ethically manage risks and eliminate them. Further, I would like to introduce guidelines, checkpoints, and measures within the health care delivery of my unit to ensure that all interventions, prevention programs, and care plans are designed to meet the needs of the population, the requirements of government agencies, and are in line with recent research evidence.

Thomas (2011) defines the core competencies of DNP nurse practitioners as information literacy, interpersonal skills, awareness of the self and diversity within the patient population and nursing staff, and the ability to promote the culture of excellence. A DNP nurse will need to have information literacy and computer skills to evaluate health care delivery systems and research studies, and create policies that promote evidence based practice. I would like to focus on developing the above skills, in particular the alignment of policy recommendations, research evidence, and the needs of the population served. As it has been stated during the course, introducing evidence-based practice does not simply consist of reviewing and synthesizing research, but also adjusting the change to the needs of patients. Individual assessments and care plans can help align the organization’s quality and efficiency goals with patients’ individual health related goals.

In today’s health care, cost effectiveness and accessibility is extremely important. For this, it is important to match the skill sets of the health care team with the desired outcomes of interventions, preventive measures, and care plans. Availability, in my opinion, is highly dependent on cultural alignment: the more the leader is able to influence individual employees’ work-related behavior, the better their commitment will be. Motivating employees is a challenge for me, as I need to appear as a competent and confident leader who can clearly define and communicate organizational goals and missions. I would like to work on my collaboration and communication /interpersonal skills in order to improve my ability to build a consensus within the organization, and with various stakeholders of the health care unit.

In my practice as a DNP quality improvement manager, I would like to introduce critical health indicator measures that can provide information about efficiency, patient satisfaction, and policy alignment, along with measuring the overall quality of care provided for patients. I would like to collaborate with colleagues to improve not only effectiveness, but also compliance within the unit, and assess the changes of the related health care policy recommendations and initiatives.

I believe that by introducing a holistic approach to prevention and patient education, service availability can be improved, and patient outcomes will be positively affected. Therefore, I would like to collaborate with social workers, policymakers, employers, and schools to introduce programs that improve patients’ health literacy. This, in turn, will reduce the cost of providing care, due to the lower number of acute and chronic case admissions.

Conclusion

Overall, I believe that the two main competency areas that I would need to focus in my future career as a DNP quality improvement manager are collaboration through communication and systems competency. Once I can synthesize information from research evidence, policy recommendations and patient feedback, I will be able to adapt systematic changes that focus on patient centered care and the implementation of evidence based practice. This will result in improved health outcomes of the population, and higher availability of services. Improved efficiency can have a positive impact on resource allocation and use, and the organization will be able to reduce expenses related to delivering care.

References

American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN]. (2006). The essentials of doctoral education for advanced nursing practice. Washington, DC: Author.

Nichols, C., O’Connor, N., & Dunn, D. (2014). Exploring early and future use of DNP prepared nurses within healthcare organizations. Journal of Nursing Administration, 44(2), 74-78.

Thomas, A. C., Dumas, M. A., Kleinpell, R., Logsdon, M. C., Julie Marfell, D. N. P., & Nativio, D. G. (2011). Nurse practitioner core competencies April 2011 amended 2012.

Vincent, D., Johnson, C., Velasquez, D., & Rigney, T. (2010). DNP-prepared nurses as practitioner-researchers: Closing the gap between research and practice. The American   Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 14, 28-34.