Whether you are focused on being a clinician, an educator, in shaping health policies—or a combination of these—earning a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree helps you gain the skills and assemble the tools you need to be a force for change in 21st-century nursing practice. As one DailyNurse contributor, recent DNP grad Patrick M. Nobles, DNP, FNP-BC, CNL, sees it, “My thoughts on having a career as a nurse include how versatile and applicable the [DNP degree] is to many career paths. The DNP degree echoes that versatility and can be utilized in many different career settings.”
While 13% of nurses currently hold a master’s degree, fewer than two percent are estimated to have a doctoral degree. The DNP is the highest practice degree in the nursing profession—and more nurses are enrolling in DNP programs every year. DNP students learn to care for patients at a practitioner level as they acquire a firm grounding in policy and leadership, a combination of skills that prepares the DNP nurse to contribute to the advancement of healthcare policies, and improvement of health outcomes for entire systems or communities as well as for individuals.
Here are three ways in which DNPs are acting as agents for change in healthcare and helping to steer the future of nursing:
1. As Nurse Scientists and Policy Makers
A good DNP program will train you in theoretical and scientific approaches utilized by behavioral, social, and organizational scientists so you can learn to evaluate evidence not only at the single patient/client and discipline-specific level, but to also to address issues at population, organizational, and systems levels.
Most DNP curricula provide a firm grounding in public health issues, policies, and legislation. Master’s-level APRN programs prepare students to function as effective clinical practitioners but do not train them to participate in the advancement of health policy or public health legislation. However, as a growing number of nurses want to help improve healthcare on a larger scale, the DNP was designed to provide them with the tools to develop their expertise on clinical and systematic levels.
2. As Chief Nursing Officers and Executive Leaders
A DNP can equip you to step up and add your vision to the “Big Picture” of the nursing profession and to the advancement of the profession in myriads of ways. Institutions such as Baylor University’s Louise Herrington School of Nursing offer a special DNP program designed for aspiring executive nurse leaders. Baylor’s online DNP-Executive Nurse Leadership (DNP-ENL) degree program is designed for working nurses and trains students to navigate the fiscal/business aspects of healthcare and develop their executive acumen. The Baylor DNP-ENL program, which revolves around the Adams Influence Model, prepares medical and health services managers, CNOs, and CNEs to effect change at system and organization levels in improving health outcomes on a large scale.
“If I am going to spend my time to obtain a DNP, I want it to mean something…
—Tami Taylor, MSN, MBA, RN, NEA-BC
At Baylor, every class has been relevant to my day-to-day role as a CNO.”
This DNP program track in Executive Nurse Leadership appeals to nurse leaders who want to implement change on an institutional level. One current Baylor DNP-ENL student, Chief Nursing Officer Tami Taylor, MSN, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, speaks for many when she says, “If I am going to spend my time to obtain a DNP, I want it to mean something… At Baylor, every class has been relevant to my day-to-day role as a CNO. I have been able to take what I have learned and apply it at work.”
After being disappointed by another online DNP program, Baylor’s program is helping Taylor to reach her career goals: “I want to continue to be the best CNO I can be and help our nurses take great care of patients through evidence-based practice and knowledge. I want to also make a more significant impact through health care policy and professional organization leadership.”
3. As DNP Nurse Practitioners
Nobles, who is an FNP as well as a DNP, also notes, “The Nurse Practitioner / DNP pathway is increasingly popular and hopefully will become the standard degree for Advanced Practice Registered Nurses. Most nursing programs have phased out their Master’s programs for nurse practitioners and moved into a DNP NP program model.”
DNP programs train NPs who can implement better health outcomes on both a “micro” and “macro” level. With Baylor’s online DNP- Family Nurse Practitioner (DNP-FNP) degree program, for instance, students hone their clinical nursing skills and abilities as leaders and innovators, study the issues facing underserved populations, seek ways to implement new treatment methods, and improve patient outcomes for individuals, families, and entire communities across the lifecycle.
“Most nursing programs have phased out their Master’s programs for nurse practitioners and moved into a DNP NP program model.”
—Patrick M. Nobles, DNP, FNP-BC, CNL
Baylor’s online DNP – FNP degree program is academically rigorous and aims to train nurses in leadership, policy change, and holistically prepare them for what they will experience as practitioners in the field. DNP-FNP students combine advanced courses in pathophysiology, assessment, informatics, and pharmacology with healthcare policy and business, ethics, epidemiology, and servant leadership. A DNP-FNP degree can transform your future and prepare you to grow a thriving practice in family primary care or advance your career track as a public health program director, health policy specialist, patient services head, and other positions from which you can effect positive changes on a large scale.
Additionally, Baylor University offers online DNP tracks for Nurse-Midwifery, Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, and Neonatal Nurse Practitioners who want to take on leadership roles in their specialties. If you want to give back to the nursing profession and play a part in steering the future of nursing, a DNP degree can prepare you to take healthcare to the next level and enjoy a more fulfilling, lucrative, and influential nursing career.
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