22: ADVISING DOCTOR OF NURSING PRACTICE “CLINICIANS” ■ 495TABLE 22.2 Student Tips for Success in Creating Your New and Expanded DNP Role
Tips Examples- Use your educational journey to build
on your prior professional experiences.
Critically evaluate your knowledge deficits
and how your prior professional settings
may have limited your exposures and
experiences.- Knowledge is power. Empower your future
opportunities by gaining more knowledge.
Put yourself in settings that you may not
have had access to before. - Take courses not exposed to before
(e.g., finances, basic science, advanced
informatics); something that will give you
an advantage in the area in which you seek
your role development.
- Knowledge is power. Empower your future
- Take this educational journey as an
opportunity to expand your horizons.
Explore different role options as NPs
have much to offer as key stakeholders in
public, population, and community health.
Use the opportunity of your “student”
status to shadow experts in those roles.- Reach out to a Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) official working in
your area of interest. Perhaps you can visit
the CDC and schedule a focused visit that
meets your individually created objectives.
You can “test out” such a position to see if
that is what you may want to work toward. - Go to community policy meetings or
shadow top “administrators or policy
makers” to broaden your perspectives of
the micro- and macro- environments. - If your NP practice is community- based,
try to partner with an agency or health
department conducting a formal needs
assessment. This is a crucial step in
program planning, implementation, and
evaluation. Unless your NP practice is
hospital based, much of the language and
processes of “quality- improvement” are not
used in community and population health.
acute care.
- Reach out to a Centers for Disease Control
- Peer- mentor your classmates and let
yourself be peer- mentored by your
classmates.- Strong bonds are created during doctoral
studies, especially when you are the ones
shaping the future roles of nurses with
practice doctorates. Learn the strengths
that each of you has and how you may
collaborate in a way that builds on what
each of you can “bring to the table.”
- Strong bonds are created during doctoral
- Intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary
collaboration will be essential for the
success of your new role. Remember that
professional relationships are built on
trust, honest communication, and integrity.
Professional behavior built on these
qualities will enhance your ability to serve
as a positive role model of the practice
doctorate (Chism, 2009). This may be your
best asset after your title of doctor opens
new doors.- As the first generation with practice
doctorates, you serve as a role model.
Your professionalism and ethical nursing
practice must prevail at the highest
standards. Others will be testing you; if
you pass, opportunities will be presented.
If you use your doctoral degree unwisely
to wield power and control, you will meet
much resistance (Houdin, Naylor, & Haller,
2004; McGrath & Piques, 2009).
- As the first generation with practice
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