July 2014 brought an update to the Key Differences between DNP and PhD/DNS Programs grid on the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Web site at http://www.aacn.nche.edu/dnp/ContrastGrid.pdf. Debate continues among academicians that the DNP is a practice doctorate and, as such, should be clinically based. Although AACN offers a broad definition of practice for the DNP, it differentiates the PhD as the research doctorate.
To better understand the rationale for the "indirect" roles of DNP graduates, Nurse Educator interviewed Dr Lucy Marion, dean of nursing at Georgia Regents University, and Robert Rosseter, chief communications officer at AACN. Dr Marion served as chair of the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties Practice Doctorate Task Force and on the AACN Task Force that defined the practice doctorate including curriculum development. She reported that master's-level nurse practitioner programs became content and practicum laden in the late 1990s and were equivalent in effort to practice doctorates in other fields. Several DNP programs offer administration and executive leadership options. There are other areas of nursing practice, such as community and public health, appropriate for a DNP.
The definition of "practice" is broadly defined in AACN's position on the DNP: "practice, specifically nursing practice, [horizontal ellipsis]refers to any form of nursing intervention that influences health care outcomes for individuals or populations, including the direct care of individual patients, management of care for individuals and populations, administration of nursing and health care organizations, and the development and implementation of health policy."
According to Rosseter, "Given this definition, it is appropriate for schools of nursing to offer DNP programs with an emphasis on leadership, informatics, health policy, and other indirect care roles." Nurse educators can encourage students to advance their education in more ways than the conventional APRN or academic role. This expanded definition of practice embraces the 4 key messages of the 2010 Institute of Medicine report on the Future of Nursing, in which nurses are active participants in transforming healthcare systems.
Submitted by: Alma Jackson, PhD, RN, COHN-S, News Editor atmailto:[email protected].