NONPF 38th Annual Conference
Preparing Practice Scholars: What is Recommended for DNP Competencies for Clinical Scholarship?
The DNP degree provides the opportunity for new and invigorated leadership within nursing and the healthcare system. DNPs will assume major responsibility for practice scholarship to enhance the quality of clinical care and patient outcomes.
While NONPF, NAPNAP, ANA, and the Nurse Practitioner Roundtable have all issued statements about the DNP, these have a limited focus on scholarship. Only the AACN Essentials Statement (2006) specifically addressed clinical scholarship and analytical methods.
Discussions in the literature have identified the issues and challenges of preparing DNPs for practice scholarship and faculty must be prepared to facilitate the development of scholarship skills and behaviors in DNP students. DNPs will be accountable for science synthesis as they provide leadership to appraising existing knowledge for their practice population. They will also be leaders in translational research and undertake the enormous complexities of implementation science. In addition to synthesizing and translating research, DNPs will create new knowledge as they design and evaluate protocols and new systems of care.
These are substantial research undertakings for any scholar, particularly one who is simultaneously responsible for patient care. The knowledge and skills to accomplish these undertakings are sobering and, indeed, would challenge the most accomplished researcher. What then is the knowledge base essential for scholars conducting clinical investigations? How does one prepare practice scholars? What are the differences and overlaps of DNP and PhD research? What are realistic expectations for DNP scholarship? These and other key questions about the competencies for DNP scholarship will be discussed.