So, is 2015 really the year where NP's will need a DNP instead of a Masters in Ohio?

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Specializes in none.

Is this really the year that NP's will have to get DNPs to practice in the state of Ohio? All I see is master-level schools. It really confuses me when reading about the AACN mandating the DNP and so many schools not adjusting to it.

If I were to take a guess, this isn't going to be a state-wide policy for many years to come.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

I dare think it is similar to the doing away with LPNs which if I recall correctly happened around 1983? Lol. In Maryland the schools are requiring it but not the Board of Nursing. Hmmmm I smell a money maker. Prospective NP students here are going out of state in droves, attending online or partial online programs, graduating with their Masters and then licensing here.

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The AACN is a voluntary professional organization -- they can't "mandate" anything. They can't even require their own members to do anything. They have proposed making the DNP the minimum entry level into advanced practice, and advocated for the idea until they are blue in the face for the last several years, but the rest of the nursing world isn't jumping on the bandwagon. No state has said anything about requiring a DNP for advanced practice licensure. The only advanced practice group that has embraced the mandatory-DNP for certification is the CRNAs, and their target date is 2025, not 2015.

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Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.

AACN released to the public a study conducted by a third party on the status of BSN to DNP implementation. The numbers are telling of how progress towards the "DNP mandate" have not reached anywhere near the 2015 timeline:

Schools with MSN only: 70%

Schools with a combination of MSN and BSN to DNP: 20%

Schools with BSN to DNP only: 10%

The above is based on 2014 adjusted data. There are a lot of MSN to DNP programs in existence now for practicing NP's with MSN but majority of schools still haven't even started to offer BSN to DNP's. It comes as a big surprise to me given the hype and false sense of urgency that were being spewed at all entities involved. The numbers are definitely not very promising as far as the "2015 mandate".

Source: http://www.aacn.nche.edu/dnp/DNP-Study.pdf

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Someone has to justify the gentrifying faculty at these schools and pay their salary until they read Medicare age. The DNP is JUST the ticket...I call it the "NP Faculty Retirement Transition Fund."

I will quit doing what I do rather than bow down to a profession that feels that adding agazillion hours of research and theory will somehow make me a better NP. Send me to the gross anatomy lab! Send me to do some sort of residency requiring a gazillion hours of patient contact. But don't make me take more theory and research and then theory and research et al ad nauseum.

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Specializes in none.

Thanks, i didn't get it beforehand. This helps me understand!

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Specializes in FNP.

I would be interested in comments from those who have been NP's since the change from certificates to MSN. It would seem that the shift to DNP would follow a similar pattern. For example, was the timeline extended past the anticipated date? What considerations or incentives was there for certificate NP's to get their MSN? Were there any other oddball requirements back then? It would seem that we may see something similar if and when DNP ever becomes a reality.

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Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.

From my understanding, the shift from certificate to master's degree in NP programs came as a natural progression, not a mandate. For example, I used to live in Michigan where all NP programs have transitioned to a Master's degree by the mid-90's yet the state Board of Nursing kept the requirement that all NP's be a graduate of a Bachelor's degree until the late 2000's.

Here in California, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center continued to offer a certificate program in WHNP until the late 90's when California started requiring a Master's degree in Nursing for NP licensure. As already been alluded to, it's not going to depend on a "mandate" from AACN. It's going to require national certification bodies and state BON's to jump on board.

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I have worked as a NP for 13+yrs....I cant see what a doctoral degree would add...except more debt.

My job is primarily clinical, direct patientcare.

Seriously, if a doctoral degree was required, why would I choose to be an NP?

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

I agree with carachel2 and globalRN! I should have gone for my MD but a lukewarm doctorate in nursing isn't something I have any desire in spending my time and money on at this point. I would be all over it if the requirements improved my medication knowledge and clinical skills which it doesn't. As far as I'm concerned I have made more than enough silly research posters to last my lifetime so no thanks to the DNP as it stands now.

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It is the failure of the profession, not moving into DNP as entry level, sadly. :( Hopefully, this will happen in 2020.

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Some school are requiring a DNP for their program but it is not state mandated. That did not pass thankfully

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