404 ■ III: ROLE FUNCTIONS OF DOCTORAL ADVANCED NURSING PRACTICE
competition, and spiraling costs. Students must be developed as leaders who truly collab-
orate with other disciplines and their communities, embracing the opportunity to work
together in an equalitarian and sustainable model. Opportunities for interpersonal interac-
tions and diverse educational experiences must be provided. Whether a simulation lab, a
newborn and family assessment experience, sharing a caseload of patients with interpro-
fessional students, developing and sustaining a refugee clinic or working with audiolo-
gists to deliver hearing health care through telepractice, students must have diverse IPE
experiences each semester on an ongoing basis. One course or practice experience at the
beginning or end of the program will not achieve interprofessional understanding, mutual
respect, and the depth of collaboration that the complexities of health care require. DNPs
have the potential to mobilize research translation and dissemination, and practice imple-
mentation strategies to ensure EBP as the norm rather than the exception (Novak, 2014).
Practice inquiry exemplars can emanate from Center for Medicaid (CMS; these
projects do not pertain to Medicare). Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment
(DSRIP) projects ranging from access to primary care, to chronic care management, to
behavioral health, to public health infrastructure, and to readmission rates. These DNP
initiatives promote team science and clinical translational research. DNP programs, now
exceeding 250, are “just in time” in preparing nurses as clinical professionals who can
make critical decisions, lead discourse and change, and write, implement, and evaluate
health policies. In order for DNPs to be effective collaborators in their new roles, the
individual DNP must be willing and prepared for personal change and growth concur-
rent with system level change and improvements. The ability to focus on social justice
and the greater good is the essence of true leadership and collaboration.
■ CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS
- Consider your own clinical practice experience. How much interprofessional communica-
tion do you employ? - Discuss whether you think nursing operates too much within its “nursing silo” or not.
- Identify any way in which your DNP education curricula are structured for interdiscipli-
nary experiences. - Who do you perceive will be your primary non- nursing doctorally prepared collaborators
when you complete your degree and enter the workforce as a DNP graduate? Discuss how
you might enhance this collaboration. - Give some thought to who you might select as possible preceptors in your DNP program
and identify at least one non- nurse doctorally prepared mentor with whom you might col-
laborate. - Debate whether you believe bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) education does an ade-
quate job teaching interprofessional and interdisciplinary collaboration. - Discuss whether you believe master of science in nursing (MSN) education does an ade-
quate job teaching interprofessional and interdisciplinary collaboration. - Identify one other health profession that you know the least about. Perform a Google search
and discuss how you might collaborate with this health professional in a possible DNP-
interprofessional role. - Go to the website of the Journal of Research in Interprofessional Practice and Educa-
tion, http://www.jripe.org. Retrieve an article from one of the current issues from your library and
discuss the article’s relevance to your future DNP role. - Devise a clinical research question that would involve the expertise of nursing and at least
one other discipline. - Describe Novak’s Integrated Model of Sustainability and its usefulness for your practice.