When I was pursuing my masters degree, I began to hear active discussion about a Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP). The DNP is quickly becoming the new terminal degree for the nursing profession. In fact, University of Texas at Arlington, where I earned my Masters of Science in Nursing, no longer has an option for a nurse practitioner degree at a masters level. Students enrolled today are working towards their DNP degrees.
I am a nurse at heart. I love the nursing profession and it is reflected in my dedication to nursing practice. Last week, I was interviewed by a current NP student. One of the questions targeted my feelings and opinions about the new DNP requirement for advanced practice nurses. Upon reflection, I realized that I don't have many warm fuzzy feelings about the DNP degree, but my opinions were based on my experiences 5 years ago. I think the way the concept was introduced to me, undermined the intention of the degree. For this blog, I spent some time on the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) website. The website had a link to a page called DNP: talking points. One of the talking points addressed how graduate credit load for nurse practitioners prepared at a masters degree level is often equivalent to the load required for doctoral degrees in other health professions. While I knew this to be true, I was unaware of the other reasons for the mandatory transition to the the DNP, such as the National Academy of Science's recommendation that the nursing profession develop a non-research clinical doctorate to help evolve the way advanced practice nurses apply clinical research findings to current problems.
Now, you might be thinking, what does this have to do with my story?
I had not bought into the DNP concept. When I polled faculty within nursing about the degree, I received mixed opinions. When I spoke with people outside the nursing profession, the general opinion was negative and there were a few doctorate prepared individual that argued that is was a illegitimate degree. I had no intention of working for a degree that would not be respected once earned. I considered a doctorates in public heath and homeland security. Neither of these would accept much if any of my previous academic achievements. In fact, the public health degree would have taken about seven years to complete due to all the prerequisites I would have needed. Also, the brick and mortar options would have completely upended my life and schedule.
By word of mouth I heard about a new interprofessional degree that was mostly online. Initally, I balked. My concept of an online degree was along the lines of a diploma mill. However, given the people that were telling me about it, I decided to investigate. At that time, I only found two schools that offered a Doctorate in Health Sciences. The next few months was an almost comical battle of raising and lowering red flags. The degree was online. This sent visions of the robot from lost in space throwing this robotic arms and yelling, "Danger, Will Robinson. Danger." However, the degree was out of a well respected allied health university. I called the acting dean and we had a long talk about the degree and my concerns. She also pontificated on how distance education can be can be worked into a schedule vs scheduling your life around your education.
I still had reservations, but I had enough information to take a chance. Three years into it, my feelings towards an online degree have made a complete turnaround. The degree is hard, but I am also learning and applying the lessons to my current profession. I have become an advocate for online graduate education and I see it was the wave of the future. I now aspire to become faculty once I graduate.
