23: THE DNP IN THE ACADEMIC ROLE ■ 513intellectual tradition, the university’s primary objective is to prepare students to live in
and make contributions to the human community. Given this philosophy, the focus for
faculty engagement is on teaching, scholarship, and service. The university has embraced
the Boyer’s Model of Scholarship; however, the scholarship of discovery is still the pre-
ferred and the most understood method of scholarship among faculty especially those
colleagues in the college of arts and sciences. In 2008, a proposal to put forth a DNP pro-
gram was supported by the nursing faculty and executive administration as the second
practice doctoral program in the university with the physical therapy program offering
the doctor of physical therapy (DPT) degree first. The DNP program admitted its first
cohort in 2010 and has graduated approximately 50 post-master’s prepared candidates.
SHU has now added a practice doctorate in business administration (DBA) and has plans
to begin a practice doctorate in education (EdD) in the near future. Given institutional
support for providing programs that will help prepare students for careers in health
care, finance , and education there has been a cultural shift to support faculty teaching
in these programs to engage in the scholarship of application and integration and be
supported for both clinical and tenure positions. As a family nurse practitioner, I was
in the unique position to be on a clinical track appointment where I was promoted from
clinical assistant to clinical associate professor based on very specific criteria. Following
completion of my DNP degree, I received the dean’s full support to transfer me as an
associate professor to the tenure track where I applied 1 year of service toward my tenure
timeline. I was the first faculty member in the history of SHU to be granted tenure and
received a promotion to full professor, which is not typical for research faculty, let alone a
DNP-prepared faculty member. To date there are four tenured professors in the college of
nursing (CON), two with DNP degrees and the other two EdD prepared. There are cur-
rently four faculty eligible for tenure in the next several years and one of those is a DNP-
prepared nurse new to academia but with years of progressive leadership experience in
hospital administration. Unlike data presented by Dreher et al. there is a blend of nursing
faculty terminal degree preparation at SHU and newly hired PhD-prepared faculty rely on
their seasoned DNP-prepared colleagues as mentors as they transition into their roles at
SHU. Although faculty enjoy scholarly discourse and bring unique perspectives based on
their own nursing backgrounds and doctoral course, work there is not the tension of being
a “second-class citizen” if DNP prepared. In the College of Nursing at SHU, DNP faculty
chair curriculum and academic standards committees, participate in global initiatives, and
are encouraged to attend AACN faculty development conferences. DNP faculty are high
contributors to the life of the university.
Accomplishments
Since 2007, I have held several different academic leadership positions at SHU, includ-
ing graduate nursing program director, DNP program director, and interim director of
the SON. I have had administrative responsibility for four master’s tracks, the devel-
opment of the online master’s programs and the development, implementation, and
evaluation of the DNP program. During my year as interim director of the SON I was
challenged to lead an increasing complex school with more than 1,100 students, 40 full-
time faculty and staff, and a curriculum with strict national accreditation standards and
guidelines. All of these roles involved having a skill set that one can argue DNP gradu-
ates attain in their curriculum and course work. The ability to lead, collaborate, work
in systems, use data, make policy changes, and influence health outcomes are all skills
that I obtained in my DNP course work and is in direct accordance with the AACN
DNP Essentials. The ability to conduct a needs assessment, develop, obtain and manage
grants, use research, understand clinical systems, and have business acumen makes the