The Doctor of Nursing Practice Graduate in Practice

摘要

In 2004, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) established a time line for moving the educational preparation of advanced practice nurses from the master's degree to the doctoral degree by 2015. In response to this initiative, the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) was developed to prepare experts in advanced nursing practice (AACN, 2006a). The AACNs (2006b) vision for the preparation and role of the DNP is provided in The Essentials of the Doctoral Education for Advanced Practice Nursing. Although there has been considerable debate about the role of the DNP (Chase & Pruitt, 2006; Hathaway, Jacob, Stegbauer, Thompson, & Graff, 2006), there is a scarcity of literature describing this from the viewpoint of practicing DNP graduates. This qualitative study seeks to fill this gap by exploring the roles of the DNP as experienced by DNP graduates. This study is an important contribution to the literature because these graduates seek to actualize new knowledge and skills in the work world.