Doctor of Nursing Practice, Essay Example

Being a nurse with a practice (DNP) or having a research doctorate comes with the responsibililty of always staying up on current research in one’s field. Not only current research, but research that spans the breadth of the field of nursing-meaning that new practices that are being implemented with efficacy in different cultures and that may prove beneficial in others, should be researched, developed, and implemented (“The Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice,” 2006, p. 11). These new innovations may be seen as alternative paradigms and are the cornerstone of DNP and as such separate the degree from other degrees, “scholars give meaning to isolated facts and make connections across disciplines through the scholarship of integration; and (3) the scholar applies knowledge to solve a problem via the scholarship of application (referred to as the scholarship of practice in nursing)” (p. 11).

My motivation to pursue a doctorate degree is definitely propelled by this paradigm. I believe that nursing is about application of science and philosophy and governing those two bodies is the discipline of emergent leadership (meaning, leaders that seek out new and innovative ways to solve old problems by listening, researching, and being open to out-of-the-box thinking) (Jarrin, 2007, para. 1). DNP programs provide for this kind of thinking and allowance for innovation based on empirical evidence. In turn, this type of paradigm helps “graduates achieve the essential and specialty competencies upon completion of the program” (“The Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice,” 2006, p. 19). The way that the program addresses such issues is appealing.

For instance, DNP programs are part of a supervised program that in turn helps students learn through “specific learning objectives” related to DNP specific requirements. Part of this appeal is that the program offers in-depth look into student practices as they relate to research and as they are evaluated by experts in any given field. The cross-discipline approach of DNP allows for further understanding of nursing as a whole under the umbrella of scientific and philosophical approaches. I am truly motivated by such synthesis as I don’t believe that something concerning human wellness and prevention should be studied in a vacuum because that causes using the same approach over and over again when there medical science is advancing in stride with modern technology. I have an iphone 5 and in a year I probably with have updated the device at least once. I feel that this scenario pars well with this program because as modern medical science advances so too should nurses’ approached to patient care advance (Klebanoff& Hess, 2013, p. 4).

“Practice immersion experiences afford the opportunity to integrate and synthesize the essentials and specialty requirements necessary to demonstrate competency in an area of specialized nursing practice” (“The Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice,” 2006, p. 19-20). Practice immersion (Swartz , 2014, p. 50) is important to me in the DNP program because it allows me to focus in different ways other than route memorization. The synthesis of disciplines as it relates to “attaining case requirements, patient or practice contact hours, completingspecified procedures, demonstrating experiential competencies” (p. 20) is core to becoming a great nurse. Discovering new phenomenon and ways to research, cure, and approach nursing is the ultimate benefit of a PhD program.

References

Jarrin, O. (2007). An integral philosophy and definition of nursing. School of Nursing. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu

Klebanoff, N., Hess, D. (2013). Holistic nursing: focusing on the whole person. American Nurse Today, 8(10), 1-5.

“The Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice.” (2006). American Association of Colleges of Nursing. 1-27.

Swartz, M.K. (2014). Critical theory as a framework for academic nursing practice. The Journal of Nursing Education, 53(5), 1-276.