Supporting Transformational Leadership Utilizing an Individualized Role Immersion Experience

DNP programs are designed to prepare transformational nurse leaders who will impact changes in practice and health care system organizations that will improve health care outcomes in diverse environments.  DNP curricula across the country incorporate content related to the DNP Essentials for Advanced Nursing Practice (AACN, 2006) in diverse formats to provide a strong foundational knowledge to implement transformational leadership action. The DNP clinical project or clinical dissertation provides the student the opportunity to identify practice issues, to investigate the cause, to identify and evaluate current knowledge, and to plan and develop interventions or approaches to effect significant changes that address the underlying problem.

In the design of our DNP program the faculty wanted to go beyond the traditional role course that is taken in the first semester.  Our goal was to provide the student in the last semester the opportunity to utilize all of the knowledge gleaned from the courses and the clinical project in a situation where they took on the DNP prepared nurse role.  This course, led by a faculty adviser, provides the student the opportunity to immerse him/herself in a real world role experience of their choosing.  The course description states that “this capstone clinical experience course provides an opportunity to integrate the role of the DNP in a comprehensive real-world context that includes utilization of leadership, consultation, advocacy, and collaboration.” The student develops an experience that could include, but is not limited to, development of health policy, initiation of a practice or systems intervention, establishment of a leadership role in a health care organization or system and development of legislation to change the nursing practice environment.  Students design and evaluate the role immersion experience utilizing the DNP Essentials as a guide. Exemplars of the significant changes that have been implemented locally, statewide and nationally as a result of this course are presented.  The students’ perspective of the impact of this course related to their understanding of the DNP nurse role and the confidence in their ability to effect significant needed changes as a result of the course are shared.