Peer Response

Please respond to Lee’s post below. Post must be substantive and add to the discussion in a meaningful way.

Lee’s post: What are your plans as an educator in your DNP role?

All healthcare providers are supposed to be educators. We are educators to many groups, including patients, colleagues, RN staff, interprofessional providers, the community, and the public. Education provided to various groups needs different approaches. Therefore, my initial plan as an educator in a DNP role is to develop appropriate education strategies for the groups mentioned above. First, I would like to consolidate my educator role with my patients, second with the organization I work for, and last, with the community. On top of providing education to groups from individual to a larger scale, I would work closely with academic units such as school faculties interested in the same fields.

How will you achieve those plans?

First and foremost, patients are my focused group. I would consolidate my professional knowledge and provide education that is easy to perceive and follow through by the patients I serve. Chism (2019) stated DNP graduates are expert clinicians who can clearly explain and demonstrate clinical phenomena. On the foundation of patient education, I would expand my education role further to the organization level by participating in research projects with colleagues and interprofessional providers. At the early stage of my DNP career, I may not be able to lead the research project, but as a DNP student, forming a trend of thoughts by completing a DNP project could be the stepping stone for me to be a future leader in evidence-based educator. (Z & P, 2019). Within the organization, I could also share the newly learned knowledge to staff nurses, and patients. In other words, a DNP educator must also be a continuous learner and it is a cycle of learning and teaching.

Nevertheless, great work does not have to confine to one organization. Melander, et al. (2021) indicated a unique DNP project started by one DNP student and continued to grow. Eventually, the original DNP project was carried on to the fourth DNP student and expanded to three hospitals. This example naturally extended the educator/learner role to the community level, where any DNP educator could have the potential to bring influence to more people.

Last but not least, I would closely collaborate with PhD background APNs or school faculty throughout the process. We know the existing research-to-practice gap is at a high rate since current practice only integrates 20-50% of evidence-based implementations. (McNett, et al., 2021). Cowan, et al. (2019) suggested for all doctoral-prepared nurses to have full understanding of each others background and focus on what each other can contribute. For example, a full time PhD-prepared nursing professor without continuing bedside works could gain insight from a clinical focused DNP, and vice versa. Again, we all are educators and educators must continue learning in order to provide the most recent evidence-based teaching.

Reference:

Chism, L. A. (2017). The doctor of nursing practice: a guidebook for role development and professional issues. 4th ed. Burlington, MA, Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Cowan, L., Hartjes, T., & Munro, S. (2019). A model of successful DNP and PhD collaboration. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 31(2), 116123. https://doi.org/10.1097/JXX.0000000000000105

Melander, S., Hampton, D., Garritano, N., Makowski, A., Hardin-Pierce, M., Scott, L., Tovar, E., & Biddle, M. (2021). Strengthening the impact of Doctor of Nursing Practice projects in education and clinical practice. The Nurse practitioner, 46(8), 3338. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NPR.0000751804.78165.5a

McNett, M., Masciola, R., Sievert, D., & Tucker, S. (2021). Advancing EvidenceBased Practice Through Implementation Science: Critical Contributions of Doctor of Nursing Practice and Doctor of PhilosophyPrepared Nurses. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 18(2), 93101. https://doi-org.umassglobal.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/wvn.12496

Zaccagnini, M. E., & Pechacek, J. M. (2019). The doctor of nursing practice essentials: a new model for advanced practice nursing. 4th ed. Burlington, MA, Jones & Bartlett Learning.

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