Doctoral degree to become an NP???

Specialties Doctoral

Published

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) is calling for the requirement of doctorate in nursing for advanced practice nurses, such as nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, clinical nurse specialists, and nurse anesthetists. This new degree will be called a Doctor of Nursing Practice and, if the AACN has its way, will become the entry level for advanced nursing practice.

AACN Position Statement on the Practice Doctorate in Nursing

Specializes in ICU, oncology, orthopedics, med/surge.

The DNP requirement is what prompted me to pursue my NP degree straight out of my BSN (which began from scratch 4 1/2 yrs ago). If all goes well, I will graduate this Fall as an FNP.

I think the push for a DNP requirement is a ploy from the universities to get more tuition fees, or an attempt to equalize the academic opinons from the MDs. If so, the latter is futile IMO. MDs will NEVER see NPs as equal...

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We are not equal to physicians, and a pseudo doctorate without any advanced sciences won't help either.

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Specializes in ER; CCT.

I'm curious. To what extent will moderators allow slamming of nurses, nursing, nursing credentials and nursing values on this nursing site? I have yet to see the limit.

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I'm curious. To what extent will moderators allow slamming of nurses, nursing, nursing credentials and nursing values on this nursing site? I have yet to see the limit.

I don't see much slamming. Nursing is screwed up and ivory tower leaders have been confusing reality and what's really needed for decades. Only when you acknowledge something is broken can you fix it. In fact, our entire health care system is broken...even the name "health care."

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i don't see much slamming. nursing is screwed up and ivory tower leaders have been confusing reality and what's really needed for decades. only when you acknowledge something is broken can you fix it. in fact, our entire health care system is broken...even the name "health care."

what is really needed? i am thinking the ivory tower is responsible for the creation of the np role, which has developed in the past few decades. i am thinking nursing and the ivory tower have been developing online education to allow nurses to further advance "nursing" education. i am also thinking the ivory tower has played a significant role in obtaining increased independence and reimbursement for advanced practice nurses. the faculty i had the pleasure of working with made a significant impact on my practice. in fact, due to their efforts my salary and scope of practice has improved every decade. sadly, my salary is significantly higher than those same faculty. i often wonder what motivates individuals to remain in the "ivory tower"?

thus, i have two questions. what is really needed? if the ivory tower is confused, who is going to do what is really needed?

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

I'm one of the mods and don't see any slamming of nursing either.

Nurses are NOT equal to physicians, I don't care how many initials you have behind your name.

However, that's not the subject here: the DNP is!

The DNP is just a suggestion at this point. IMHO, this will fall off just the way the "BSN is gonna be the entry level for nursing" suggestion!

I'm not losing sleep over it.

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i'm one of the mods and don't see any slamming of nursing either.

nurses are not equal to physicians, i don't care how many initials you have behind your name.

however, that's not the subject here: the dnp is!

the dnp is just a suggestion at this point. imho, this will fall off just the way the "bsn is gonna be the entry level for nursing" suggestion!

i'm not losing sleep over it.

as a moderator, if you want me to pm you what and by whom slamming is happening, please let me know.

i am not sure if anyone has ever posted saying nps are equal to mds, maybe someone did, the individual may have even have been a np. what has been posted by several (np and non-np) is that nps are not equal to mds, they repeat often, that they will never be equal to mds. i for one understood the message, in fact i understood the 1st time. it isn't really a difficult concept. i and other posters don't appear to disagree, yet these same posters continue to tell/post the same thing, confusing at best.

in regards to the dnp only being a suggestion, i have a concern as to where you have been getting your information. a national dnp organization sent the following recently.

march 29, 2010

interesting data: as of fall 2009, for those programs which prepare graduates for practice as an advanced practice registered nurse, 219 institutions have dnp programs either operating or in planning. as of september 2009, there were 120 dnp programs enrolling students at schools of nursing nationwide (36 states plus the district of columbia), and an additional 99 dnp programs are under development.

from 2008 to 2009, the number of students enrolled in dnp programs increased from 3,406 to 5,165. during that same period, the number of dnp graduates nearly doubled from 360 to 660 (personal communication from drs. fay raines, president, and geraldine "polly" bednash, ceo and executive director, american association of colleges of nursing, february 18, 2010).

take home message: the number of dnp graduates will likely double each year from 660 graduates in 2009 to about 1,300 new dnps in 2010; and 2,600 in 2011 and a conservative estimate of 5,200 dnp graduates in 2012. by the end of 2012 over 10,000 dnp graduates are expected to be in practice. it's difficult to predict how many dnps will be in practice by the end of 2015. one estimate is that close to 50,000 practice doctorate graduates will be in the work force.

these compelling numbers say that dnps are poised and ready to make a difference in health care delivery. leadership and innovation in practice will be the hallmark of dnp practice. http://www.doctorsofnursingpractice.org/

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It's a shame that all of those "doctors" won't have received a decent education for what they are wanting in the shape of expanded independent practice. The NP community, for whatever reason, is pushing for more autonomous practice yet they aren't willing to step up and say that the dnp programs are cutting the mustard so to say. The dnp progs out there are nothing more than PhD Lite. They are filled with classes that have no bearing on ongoing patient management. They are full of classes like transformational health care systems, leadership, theory, etc. The dnp is just a money maker for the universities and puts all of us in a bad light with the medical community.

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Specializes in ER; CCT.
I'm one of the mods and don't see any slamming of nursing either.

Nurses are NOT equal to physicians, I don't care how many initials you have behind your name.

However, that's not the subject here: the DNP is!

The DNP is just a suggestion at this point. IMHO, this will fall off just the way the "BSN is gonna be the entry level for nursing" suggestion!

I'm not losing sleep over it.

We are not equal to physicians, and a pseudo doctorate without any advanced sciences won't help either.

It's a shame that all of those "doctors" won't have received a decent education for what they are wanting in the shape of expanded independent practice..

The dnp progs out there are nothing more than PhD Lite. They are filled with classes that have no bearing on ongoing patient management. They are full of classes like transformational health care systems, leadership, theory, etc..

The dnp is just a money maker for the universities and puts all of us in a bad light with the medical community.

I think most agree these comments way exceed a healthy debate on the DNP and well encroach a hostile attack on the profession of nursing, nurses and its direction for credentialing. Instead of indicating slamming of nursing does not occur on this site, perhaps it would be more accurate if you just indicate you agree with those who are slamming. Also, please let me know if you need more citations, I only had time to review the last page.

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If people can't stand the heat then get out of the kitchen! This is a debate about the neccessity of a "doctoral" degree to work in advance practice. Just because myself and others disagree with your rose colored outlook on NPs doesn't mean that nursing is being "slammed". Its a shame that some take this a little too personal, because these debates or discussions are healthy for our practice.

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Specializes in ER; CCT.

Nurses are NOT equal to physicians..

Almost forgot. I totally agree.

Physicians are in NO way, shape or form equal to nurses.

That's why nursing remains the most trusted profession in the country and why physicians are further down on the respect list--somewhere between high school teachers and telemarketers.

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:grn:

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