DPN: Doctor of Nursing Practice
Earning your DPN (Doctor of Nursing Practice) is a great step up in your career outlook and you ought to pat yourself on the back for making such a wise choice. Not that other degrees in nursing aren’t rewarding or good choices, but something about the DPN has intrigued you. So, here’s some basic information you might want to skim over before you start applying to nursing school again. The field of nursing is expanding way beyond any other service sector job. No doubt you must be looking to expand your career opportunities, earnings, and perhaps even status at your job, and therefore are now looking into education alternatives in which to do so.
To begin with, as you are probably aware, there are several terminal doctoral-level levels in nursing, which means these degrees are the highest in their category. The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), and the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) are the highest degrees granted by any other institution of learning. The difference between the PhD in Nursing and the DNP is that the PhD, as other degrees of philosophy are exactly that – driven by ideas, theory, and research. In other words, the PhD in Nursing qualifies a graduate to work as a director or administrator, rather than a hands-on practitioner. The DNP focuses on the clinical facets of nursing instead of academic research. The curriculum for that DNP degree generally includes advanced practice, leadership, and use of clinical research. DNPs normally supervise a staff of nurses.
The PhD in Nursing degree is really a research doctoral that needs a dissertation which prepares graduates to work as beginning nurse-researchers and students, with the aim of creating a program of research as independent nurse-researchers active in the discovery and refinement of nursing understanding. The DNP degree is really a clinical doctoral that prepares the graduate to rehearse individually most abundant in complex patients, in a setting, utilizing complicated informatics and evidence-based decision-making abilities. Their education takes a DNP portfolio that’s of equal detail and compelling evidence like a research dissertation. The DNP may be the greatest degree for nurse-physicians and prepares these phones practice fully accountable take care of patients across configurations and with time.
The way healthcare has grown in complexity, especially in the way nurses deliver care, has been the impetus of the growing need for nurses on the DNP level. Due to these complexities, including the abundant need for geriatric specialists, hospitals and clinics rely on the skills, experience, and education of DNPs. According to Columbia School of Nursing, general learning outcomes of a graduate earning a DNP degree are:
- Recognition of and treatment interventions for diagnostic difficulties of acute and chronic ailments, as well as their comorbidities.
- Sophisticated utilization of informatics and decision-making technology.
- Sophisticated use of biological, mental and social science concepts to healthcare practice.
- Provision of fully accountable, top quality, comprehensive care in most configurations.
DNP at Columbia School of Nursing program includes:
- 30 credits of science underpinning practice and practica
- Annually of full-time residency (10 credits)
- Conclusion of the scholarly portfolio of complex situation studies, scholarly papers and released articles.
The Doctor of Nursing Practice program provides a scientifically focused curriculum to organize expert professionals. Their education signifies the greatest academic preparation in clinical nursing. Graduates of the DNP program is going to be advanced practice nurses using the understanding and abilities for fully accountable expert choose to patients across all care configurations. As a bonus, the DPN can be conferred along with any niche in advanced nursing practice.
Written by Brenne Meirowitz, BA, MA, MS
©2011 Brenne Meirowitz & Online Nursing Programs, PhD in Nursing, & DNP Programs. All Rights Reserved.
