412chapter SEVENTEEN
Refl ective Response 2
Jihane Hajj
Novak accurately described the crucial role of doctorally prepared advanced practice
nurses (APNs) in bringing to the table “a clear professional identity and comprehensive
training and development.” APNs surely need not pursue a doctoral degree if their sole
responsibilities are in firm adherence to the core competencies set forth by their gov-
erning entities. It is true that the goal of a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree is
to prepare and equip the graduate with the skills to enhance the interdisciplinary and
interprofessional collaboration potentials with the goal of overcoming the many chal-
lenges of our health care system. The following response serves to provide the reader
with concrete examples that each one is invited to apply in his or her own area of spe-
cialty. Through reflection, I will be exercising the true meaning of this act that gives me
the complete freedom as a thinking being to examine the end results of my actions and
in this case my role as a doctorally prepared APN (Gasche, 1986). In this response, I will
be strictly referring to concrete examples in the area of prevention and more specifically
cardiovascular prevention. As it is very well known, challenges in the health care sys-
tem encompasses various specialties and these concrete examples should be merely a
guide to expand your thoughts in your future practice as doctorally prepared APNs.
There exist numerous roles of doctorally prepared APNs’ contributions in the
area of clinical research, evidence appraisal, and guidelines development, and health
policy development. Each of these areas are discussed separately resorting to concrete
examples from the field of cardiovascular prevention. As a preventive cardiology APN,
I specialize in evaluating and managing individuals’ cardiovascular risk. It is very well-
documented that cardiovascular diseases (CVD) remain the leading cause of death in
men and women, and more importantly traditional risk factors (i.e., smoking, lack of
exercise, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia) do not fully explain the rea-
son individuals get coronary artery disease (CAD). In fact, 60% of patients with CAD
have 0 to 1 risk factor, which makes it more challenging to understand the process of
atherosclerosis and a tremendous opportunity for research (Nasir et al., 2012). The inter-
disciplinary collaboration opportunities are unlimited in this field of study. While it is
established that APNs possess the ability of understanding and applying the nation-
ally accepted guidelines to decrease cardiovascular risk, the doctorally prepared APN
should play additional roles in clinical research to unveil the many mysteries surround-
ing this nagging disease process. What factors keep CAD the leading cause of death
among men and women? What is the role of biomarker of inflammation and how are