Paper
Sunday, November 4, 2007
202
Re-Engineering Healthcare through the Doctor of Nursing Practice: Early Lessons Learned
Julie Novak, DNSc, RN, MA, CPNP, FAANP, School of Nursing, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
| Learning Objective #1: understand the development and sustainability of a nurse-managed clinic healthcare system. |
| Learning Objective #2: understand the integration of an evidence-based DNP program into a nurse-managed clinic system and the effective use of a range of technologies into that system. |
The purpose of this presentation is to describe the development of a program of learning that implements evidence-based practice through interdisciplinary collaboration among the College of Pharmacy, Nursing and Health Sciences; Center for Homeland Security; and the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering. The School of Nursing’s Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program uses interdisciplinary resources to create unique DNP curricular opportunities. The DNP delivers an engineering and interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty, hospitals, community leaders, and policy makers. Students prepare to change their education and practice settings by promoting, implementing, and evaluating evidence-based practice across clinical settings. Doctoral coursework, interdisciplinary collaboration, healthcare engineering/systems approaches, and new knowledge result in providers with distinct skill and knowledge sets and a focus on translational research. Post-baccalaureate students complete an adult or pediatric nurse practitioner program during the first two years of the four-year curriculum. The last two years focus on the application of engineering principles to healthcare, e.g. root cause analysis related to systems error reduction, statewide gap analysis related to avian influenza readiness, and rural healthcare delivery system design. A total of 83 post-baccalaureate credit hours include 1,526 hours of supervised clinical practice, a healthy policy residency and cognate residencies in a specialized area. Post-master’s DNP students come from a variety of advanced practice and public health specialties and complete 37 to 53 credit hours based upon their previous curriculum/coursework and time since completion of the master’s degree. Purdue’s first DNP cohort will graduate in 2007. Forty four DNP students are currently enrolled.