288 ■ III: ROLE FUNCTIONS OF DOCTORAL ADVANCED NURSING PRACTICE
- Include evaluation of process and/ or outcomes that guide practice or policy
- Provide the basis for future practice- related scholarship (AANC Task Force on
Implementation of the DNP, 2015)
DNP projects should demonstrate the cumulative knowledge and skills students
have gained during their program (Waldrop, Caruso, Fuchs, & Hypes, 2014). Having an
adequate number and range of academic– practice partnerships is important in provid-
ing DNP students with access to practice settings where they can develop, implement,
and evaluate a clinical project that meets the earlier criteria.
In addition to the benefits that these partnerships afford DNP programs and
their students, there are also potential benefits for the practice settings (Dunbar- Jacob,
Nativio, & Khalil, 2013). Focus on the Magnet® recognition program and quality
improvement initiatives, as well as the requirement for quality monitoring are among
the forces driving current interest in academic– practice partnerships (Kleinpell, Faut-
Callahan, Carson, Llewellyn, & Dreher, 2015). DNP programs are designed to prepare
experts in specialized advanced practice. Students are prepared for practice that is inno-
vative and evidence- based, applying credible research findings to improve health care
outcomes (AACN, The Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice ).
When the DNP student has the opportunity to collaborate with practice partners in the
design, implementation, and evaluation of his or her project, the practice site as well as
the student will benefit from the knowledge gained. DNP program faculty with exper-
tise in quality improvement methodologies can partner with members of the clinical
team in the design, implementation, and evaluation of quality improvement projects
that improve quality and accessible patient- centered care. Faculty can also collabo-
rate with clinical settings on the development of advanced practice registered nurses’
(APRNs’) residency programs. Finally, academic– practice partnerships can enhance
the ability of practice sites to recruit and retain DNP- prepared APRNs.
Although we did not identify any academic– practice partnership models that
were specifically designed to provide clinical experiences for DNP students, several
of the models in the literature involved graduate students and could serve as effec-
tive DNP program- practice models. Thabault, Mylott, and Patterson (2015) described
an academic– practice partnership between Minute Clinics and Northeastern University
School of Nursing. The goals of the partnership were to recruit and retain APRNs in
Minute Clinic practice sites, support academic progression, and provide teaching exper-
tise in relation to knowledge and skills needed to lead interprofessional teams in retail
and other community settings. Service and faculty partners developed an APRN post-
graduate residency within the Minute Clinics, which included a two- credit online lead-
ership course at the completion of the residency program. Tuition for the course was
funded through the residency program. Preceptors as well as residents were invited to
take the course.
Killeen et al. (2015) described a practitioner–teacher model in which APRNs in
practice settings served as advanced practice nurses and preceptors for APRN stu-
dents. In 2012, Rush University Medical Center was selected as a graduate nursing
education (GNE) site. These sites, established under the Affordable Care Act, are
administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services with the goal of
increasing the supply of APRNs to increase access to quality health care services. As
a GNE site, Rush was able to trial new models of care that included training for nurse
practitioner (NP) students. The authors described one of the models in the cardiac
intensive care unit in which acute care NPs provided 24/ 7 patient coverage for the
unit. Development of the model included the development of the practitioner– teacher
model for NP training.