Doctor of Nursing Practice: Pursuing a Goal for a Cause, Research Paper Example

Pursuit of the DNP

Nursing has and will always be more than just assisting the doctors. It is a misconception that nurses are mere assistants to the doctors (Retief, 2005). While majority of the determinable function of a nurse depends on how well he works with the doctors, it cannot be denied that when it comes to creating a new form of improvement, the work of the nurses always come first in line especially that they have to deal directly with the patients. As a nurse mastering the art of caring for the patients, I personally desire to contribute more to the field I am engaged with termed as obstetrics. My interest in furthering my studies towards getting a DNP degree is based upon my hope of making a difference to the society through making a difference in my patients’ lives and process of considering their own situation.

Through being involved in actual cases of dealing with patients handling their pregnancy issues with difficulty, I found it interesting to make a difference on how they are assisted regarding their situation. I have seen young mothers and new mothers having difficulties handling the situation, overwhelmed by their new found responsibilities to the point of getting depressed over the current case (Salisbury, 2011). This was when I knew I wanted to do something more worthy of defining my skills and my practice of assisting the patients in my field. I know that if they are assisted well, these mothers, young parents at that, would have a better view of their future with their children and become more responsible individuals who would be able to nurture children who are ready for the world. This way, not only would I be able to contribute to my patients’ development of better perspective on their own situations, I would also be able to create a more workable picture that could determine how effective it would be for nurses like myself to become more efficient in the way they address patient needs.

Ideal position

While it is my utmost desire to head the nursing department in the obstetrics section of the healthcare facility I would be working with, I hope to do more than just that. I hope to later on influence the whole work of nursing procedures that would make a distinct mandate on how I apply what I have learned through determining the skills-set that identifies with the professional reputation I hope to incur. I would love to be a part [if not the founder] of an organization dedicated to providing ample care and assistance to women who are undergoing pregnancy. This organization ought to provide distinct courses to mothers as they face different issues in pregnancy. Pioneering in creating programs that would teach expecting mothers what to do after birth would also be one of the highlights of the role that the organization would be noted for.

From birthing basics, to breastfeeding, to regaining a woman’s basic source of confidence and competence after birth; these issues shall be tackled by the organization thoroughly through community dissemination operations. Considerably, it could be understood that when it comes to organizational development, my DNP degree would help me embrace a new sense of the role that I am taking, especially in making a difference not only in the field I am trying to make a mark in, but also towards the communities I hope to serve. My new role will prepare me for organization leadership and systems change hence I will be suited for high level health system and policy making roles. I will be able to design, influence and implement realistic health care policy alternatives with a focus on cost (should be affordable to every human being), efficacy, safety, quality, acess and regulation and incorporating equity.

I will be able to address policy changes that impact clinical realm for instance; participating in asking relevant questions directly from the clinical setting. This will facilitate development of new knowledge in the field. Dealing with issues at hand allows direct implementation of evidence-based practice which in turn reduces the amount of time to evaluate and translate the outcomes. My role will add in development and sustenance of therapeutic relationships and partnership with patients (personally, family and groups) and other practitioners to facilitate optimal care and patient outcomes. I will be able to foster conceptual and analytical skills in evaluating the links among practice, organizational, population, fiscal and policy issues (Ibrahim, 2006).

Concentrated on woman and children’s health, my position as head of the nursing department and a head or a dignified member of an organization for women’s health would create a more workable purpose for my being and the profession I have chosen to master. Not everything would be easy; in fact, I recognize that particular challenges should be faced along the way. Nevertheless, the condition by which I handle these challenges through the principles and guidelines I would be learning from the DNP course I am enrolled in would make a mark on how well I am to make it in reaching my goals in making a difference to the society.

Skills and knowledge

Among the primary skills I hope to incur in this process of learning is the capacity to see through my patients’ situation in an extensively effective manner, specifically involving the possibility of helping them out psychology (Salisbury, et al, 2011). Through my earlier courses, I have learned that psychological principles applied in nursing procedures affect the recovery process of each patient accordingly. This indicates that when a nurse is highly skilled in determining the psychological needs of a patient, then that healthcare professional would be able to create a more responsive process of recovery that shall assist the patient to see her case differently in a more positive manner.

Mothers who are to give birth and who have already given birth have very different needs. Nurses who often deal with such situations get used to the protocol procedures of handling these patients (Sparacino, et al, 2005). Nevertheless, there is a certain need for a more focused system of development on how the needs of these particular patients ought to be viewed and handled accordingly. Relatively, what expectant and birthing mothers need from the nurses is the assurance that someone does understand them and are not simply there to assist them medically. The real value of nursing, for me, is that when it comes to handling patient-care, the individuals assisted would feel relieved and renewed from the medical condition they have been assisted with both in physical and psychological perspective. Upon finishing the course, I sure hope I would be able use this skill in assuring my patients with the thought that they are understood and that if they encounter difficulties along the way, they have someone who they know they can turn to and rely on when it comes to considering psychological assistance procedures taken into a higher degree.

Recommendations for transforming the future

The future of healthcare creates a more constructive form of embracing patient care procedures at a much higher degree. Relatively, this form of assistance on the part of the nurses ought to take the art of patient care to a much better construction of confidence among the patients as they receive attentive care from their nurses. DNP nurses have the capacity to see through the situation and become more involved in the lives of their patients their mental capacities and their psychological perceptions of their health (Wagner, 2006). Affecting the way individuals think largely affects the way they react; knowing this fact, nurses with DNP degrees are given proper option of personal and professional growth especially in determining the developmental aspects of creating better options of recovery for patients that they are to deal with in the actual medical industry.

Transformation of nursing procedures adapted by individuals involved in the process of acquiring DNP degree is usually based upon the concept of personal and professional improvement especially on how patients are addressed according to the specific cases they have to deal with. Practically, this transformation of operation on the part of nurses undergoing this degree of mastery creates a differential approach on how new cases are dealt with and how old issues in their specialties are resolved (Sparacino, et al, 2005). As for my case, issues in the process of determining the role of a nurse in obstetrics ought to provide me a source of competence in changing the thinking process of my patients especially in creating a more defined indication on how they ought to face common difficulties as they give birth to their infants and as they handle a constructive process by which they are to recover from their birthing conditions; a process of recovery that would best define their option of growth especially in relation to how they handle their responsibilities towards themselves and the ones they have to care for, their infants and a new family. Accordingly, with these particular transformations, I hope to engage in determining a more definite turn on advancing towards two particular principles of transformation including:

1. Prepare and enable nurses lead change and embrace technology/innovations to advance health.
2. Build an infrastructure for the collection and analysis of interprofessional health care workforce data.

These principles create a more identified form of direction as to how nursing in obstetrics could be brought to a higher and more competent degree of efficiency for the sake of the patients being assisted.

Conclusion

Women could be easily overwhelmed by their situation. This is especially true when it comes to determining their consideration over the need to face the new challenges of pregnancy and giving birth. Nurses of obstetrics ought to be capable of establishing a new sense of creating a more workable and highly attentive system of assisting patients according to their needs in relation to the specific health issues that each individual is subjected to. Probabilities of professional and personal development of an individual taking up DNP degree is widened out towards creating a definite form of difference in the areas where they hope to specialize in (Ibrahim, et al, 2006). In my case, I do hope that I am able to create a more extensive process of development in creating more responsive procedures of dealing with the needs of patients according to specific situations they have to deal with.

Practically, the work of nurses in my field ought to be heightened accordingly to the ways by which the patients are able to be assisted accordingly especially in relation to the case they are supposed to handle after they receive medical attention. Constructively, the DNP degree would actually increase the capacity that I have to address my patients’ needs at a much higher degree; one that would have a great impact not only on the health of my patients but on their lives as well. I do expect that undergoing this particular course of development in my professional goal to have an effect on my personal understanding of my responsibility as a nurse of obstetrics.

References

Wagner, Marsden. Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. Print.

Ibrahim A. Alorainy, Fahad B. Albadr, Abdullah H. Abujamea (2006). “Attitude towards MRI safety during pregnancy”. Ann Saudi Med 26 (4): 306–9.

Retief, Fracois P. (2005). The Healing Hand: The Role of Women in Ancient Medicine: The Graeco-Roman World. Acta Theologica Supplementum. p. 178.

Salisbury, Joyce E. (2001). Women in the Ancient World. ABC-CLIO. pp. 142–3.

American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2004). AACN Position Statement on the Practice Doctorate in Nursing. Available at http://www.aacn.nche.edu/DNP/pdf/DNP.pdf. (Retrieved on November 16, 2015).

American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (2007). AANA Position on Doctoral Preparation of Nurse Anesthetists. Available at http://www.aana.com/uploadedFiles/Members/Membership/Resources/dtf_posstatemt0707.pdf. (Retrieved on November 16, 2015).

Newhouse, Robin; Stanik-Hutt, Julie; White, Kathleen M.; Johantgen, Meg; Bass, Eric B.; Zangaro, George; Wilson, Renee F.; Fountain, Lily; Steinwachs, Donald M.; Heindel, Lou; Weiner, Jonathan P. (September–October 2011). “Advanced Practice Nurse Outcomes: 1990-2008: A Systematic Review” (PDF). Nursing Economic$ 29 (5).

Sparacino, P. S. A. (2005). The clinical nurse specialist. In A. B. Hamric, J. A. Spross & C. M. Hanson (Eds.), Advanced practice nursing: An integrative approach (3rd ed., pp. 415–446). St. Louis: Elsevier.