286 ■ III: ROLE FUNCTIONS OF DOCTORAL ADVANCED NURSING PRACTICE
education. Not the least of these is the opportunity to contribute to the quality and in-
novation of both practice and education. For example, as a component of the University
of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC)/ UPitt (UPMC Health System and University
of Pittsburgh School of Nursing) Partnership, doctorally prepared senior staff at the
UPMC serve on the school leadership team, as well as a variety of academic councils.
Similarly, doctorally prepared faculty serve on the nursing leadership group, as well
as on nursing and interdisciplinary committees. The benefit of this form of partnership
is improvement of communication and broadening of the perspective in these critical
working groups.
In this model, DNP- prepared senior staff serve on the undergraduates, masters,
and DNP councils. The councils design curriculum, review specific learning activities,
review student progress, and ensure that programs are addressing future health care
workforce skills. In addition, the DNP staff serves as members of DNP- student projects,
deliver lectures to classes, and precept students. The addition of the DNP staff from
the health system provides information on the vision for practice, confirmation of edu-
cational directions, and opportunity for the service partners to learn about changes in
educational initiatives, and input on the positive and negative experiences of students,
faculty, and clinical staff in the education of students. The educational background of
the DNP staff in quality improvement, mentorship/ preceptorship, and an advanced
level of practice enriches the conversation between the academic and service partners.
Reciprocally, the DNP (and PhD) faculty of the school of nursing serve on a variety
of practice councils. For example, faculty serve on the health system–nursing informat-
ics council and evidence- based practice council for nursing. Faculty also serve on inter-
disciplinary committees, such as recruitment committees, ethics committee, scientific
review committee, infection control and patient safety committee, as well as the quality
of patient care committees. In addition, faculty serve as consultants at selected hospitals
and collaborate in selected quality initiatives. Faculty are able to bring the perspective
of both education and advanced practice to the work of these councils enriched by the
advanced clinical, translational, policy, and quality- improvement DNP education they
received. Additionally, the shared participation means that clinical staff are aware of
educational innovations and academic staff are aware of practice changes without acci-
dental discovery. This makes interactions around students and educational processes
more efficient and reinforces trust between the two groups.
The connection between the practice environment and the academic environ-
ment that are enriched by the education of the DNP faculty member or clinical setting
staff promotes a deeper level of engagement in both the academic and service environ-
ments. The emphasis on personal opinion driving educational and practice decisions is
replaced with a commitment to and understanding of the translation of research find-
ings to education and practice along with both an appreciation for and competence to
evaluate such innovations in the real world (educational/ practice) settings. Further, the
shared perspective of the DNP in both settings facilitates collaboration in advancing the
profession.
One of the strongest areas of partnership is in the education of the next generations
of DNP students. Two models of education currently exist. One of those models, sup-
ported by AACN, NONPF, NACNS, and CoA, advocates for advanced practice educa-
tion at the bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) to DNP level. In this model, the student
has 1,000 or more hours of supervised clinical practice as well as education in systems,
evidence- based practice and translation, policy, and leadership. Programs that follow
this model may offer post- master’s programs within the specialty track. The second,
and currently more common model, offers leadership, evidence- based practice transla-
tion, policy, and systems educational content as a general post- master’s DNP program