11: REPORT ON A NATIONAL STUDY OF DOCTORAL NURSING FACULTY ■ 257Although it is not the purpose of this chapter to explore these topics in depth, these
current and persistent questions framed the need to conduct this follow- up national sur-
vey in order to determine how these issues are currently impacting the doctoral nursing
faculty.
The AACN (2004) has maintained since 2004, and with the 2006 publication of
The Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice (AACN, 2006), that
the educator role is not an advanced nursing practice role. We recount, however, as
Wittmann-Price, Waite, and Woda (2011) wrote in Chapter 7 of the first edition of this
text “to what extent did members of the AACN (composed of college and nursing
school deans) fully vet the implications for including the executive role as ‘advanced
practice’ but excluding the educator role as ‘advanced practice’?” Valiga notes in her
Reflective Response to this same argument in the revised chapter in the second edition,
... if they [nurses] desire to practice at an advanced level, they need to pursue
graduate education... the nurse educator role clearly needs to be defined as
an “advanced practice” role and acknowledged as a critical component of the
health and viability of our profession.
Zungolo (2009) and others reported that 30% or more of DNP graduates are entering
academia and reiterated that these graduates are not being formally prepared for the
faculty role (Smeltzer et al., 2015). The migration of large numbers of DNP graduates
into academia is occurring as predicted (Dreher et al., 2012). The prospect of a replace-
ment of the PhD with the DNP in academia appears to be a real possibility. The impact
on faculty retention, research and scholarship, student outcomes, and percent of tenure-
track and tenured faculty needs to be examined.
The question whether doctoral faculty who will ultimately teach in DNP and MSN
programs are at a disadvantage in the tenure system is a real one. And while Nicholes
and Dyer (2012) reported that some institutions may actually tenure DNP faculty (likely
institutions that are not research intensive), Meleis (2011), in a point/ counterpoint in
the Journal for Nurse Practitioners , again confirmed what probably remains the most pre-
dominant view (but not necessarily the paradigm position in the future) in nursing—
that DNPs should not hold tenure- track positions. But whether this remains the future
practice in nursing academia is a fundamental question. Udlis and Mancuso (2015) note
that DNP participants felt prepared for the demands of the faculty role and the requisite
tenure, research, and scholarship requirements; however, PhD participants disagreed
that the DNP degree prepares graduates to assume these responsibilities. The role and
scholarly contributions of the DNP- prepared faculty member with respect to faculty
scholarly and practice expectations, academic leadership potential, and tenure needs to
be addressed. If we continue to insist that only those who are accomplished scientists
with extensive external funding and long lists of peer- reviewed publications are worthy
of tenure and promotion, we will ostracize DNP- prepared faculty engaged in clinical
practice who are generating practice evidence. This is not to say that scholarship is not
important; however, should we not consider individuals for tenure who have sustained
record of scholarly accomplishments, who have had an impact on educational or clinical
practices, who have made significant contributions to the health of a patient population
or academic program, and who have the potential to continue these important contribu-
tions (Valiga, this volume)? With the growing numbers of DNP- prepared faculty in the
academy, the nursing discipline may be less visible in the academy over time if we stand
firm on these traditional views of tenure and promotion.
The third question is whether the surge in DNP programs is a threat to PhD pro-
gram resources? However, what is undisputable is that in 2014 with fewer resources in
higher education due to significant economic pressures, the number of DNP programs