505chapter TWENTY-THREE
When the DNP Chair Is a DNP
Graduate: The DNP in the
Academic Role
Susan DeNisco and Sandra Bellini
In the past decade, there has been an explosion of post-baccalaureate and post-
master’s-prepared nurses entering and completing Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
programs. These graduates leave armed with a wealth of new knowledge, including
leadership, policy, informatics, systems analysis, evidence-based practice methodol-
ogy, and clinical skills that make them uniquely prepared to enter academic settings
as nursing faculty members. More than 50% of new DNP graduates are interested in
obtaining a nursing faculty appointment on graduation (Loomis, Willard, & Cohen,
2007 ). DNP-prepared nurses are contributing considerably to nursing education in
academic leadership roles, such as dean, associate dean, chair, director, or chief admin-
istrator of nursing programs and schools. Their effective leadership and strong influ-
ence can be witnessed at small nursing programs at liberal arts colleges and schools of
nursing at large research-intensive universities (Danzey et al., 2011). However, there is
much controversy in academic circles, which revolves around the discussion that DNP-
prepared nurses may have an inadequate foundation to teach nursing students, let
alone lead academic programs compared with their research-prepared colleagues. In
the faculty hiring section of a National League for Nursing (NLN, 2012) annual survey
(2011–2012) the data showed that research-prepared faculty scored slightly higher on
curriculum development and assessment but ranked notably lower than both DNP
and master’s-prepared faculty on clinical skills. Still there is a paucity of literature
regarding DNP graduates as effective faculty members, let alone their potentiality to
lead academic units. This chapter offers insight on the way DNP graduates are posi-
tioned to be contemporary and clinically competent educators at both graduate and
undergraduate levels and also possess the capacity to lead academic programs at their
institutions.