DNP Fellowship - what's the point?

Nursing Students NP Students

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Specializes in Urgent Care NP, Emergency Nursing, Camp Nursing.

When I started my DNP back in 2013, I was told that, having had a prior MS in General Nursing due to my entry program, that my DNP program could cut me a post-master's certificate and then I'd be on the road to independent practice while I started and continued the internship hours for the final year of the program. Doing that, or cutting an along-the-way MSN for those non-master's prepared nurse, seemed reasonable to me, to allow us to start practice and have a proper fellowship, in which a properly licensed and certified person could continue their education and become more specialized and/or knowledgeable. That's how it works for medicine, why should it be much different for us?

Then AANP and ANCC had a sit-down last year that they told everyone about after they implemented it in which they declared that such an option isn't viable, and in order to be issued one's certification one had to fully graduate from the program they enrolled in.

Encouraging DNP completion was their stated reason, which is fine and all, but I have two problems with this. First, if someone starts the DNP, they obviously wanted it, so they're more likely to complete it. To my knowledge, no data was presented that drop-outs after boards were a substantial issue. Secondly, it completely negates the point of the fellowship as it was initially explained to me, as I won't be able to practice clinically. As it was briefly explained to me last spring, it's now me doing administrative projects/scutwork for someone...which, seeing as I have my own DNP project, seems redundant.

So, what is the point of it now? My school still hasn't posted the syllabus, and the class starts a week from today.

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