Impact Measurement and the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

“Impact measurement” is the process of quantifying the effects of EBP.  Current government and payer mandates for adoption of EBPs for specific medical conditions, are challenging clinicians to continuously critique their practice, confront interdisciplinary colleagues that fail to perform, collect performance data, and analyze not only process control, but also the results achieved.  Ironically, these demands have emerged at a time when nursing resources are slim, when informatics solutions are incomplete in most settings, and when public scrutiny of performance quality is at an all time high.  The DNP may offer healthcare institutions a solution to meet these ongoing demands in the form of a practice expert that is uniquely educated and skilled in quality project design, execution and analyses.   DNPs should be exquisitely prepared to create cultures of inquiry that foster questioning of current practice paradigms, as well as ongoing exploration and dialogue about methods to enhance the structure and processes that are used routinely in health care.  In doing so, DNPs should be capable of enlarging the worldviews of their nursing and interdisciplinary colleagues, alongside achievement of optimal patient, institutional and nursing outcomes.  Curricula supporting DNP programs must be derived from a clear understanding of the demands affecting practitioners across a variety of healthcare settings.  While most include significant content on methods that support abilities to search, appraise and synthesize evidence for its readiness for use in practice, curricula that culminate in EBP impact measurement facilitate development of a skill set that enables quantification of the unique contribution of nurses, enhances change mastery, and fosters interdisciplinary interdependency, moving away from silo-like practice models that limit seamless healthcare delivery.  This session presents lesions learned from 2 DNP student practitioners who have broadened nursing’s sphere of influence within their Magnet hospital through creative, reflective transformational leadership.