Transforming DNP Practice Partnerships Through Meaningful Student Initiatives and Structured Collaborations

The University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies (UMSONHS) Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) program has developed a unique approach to practice immersion. During this time, students have been exposed to an increasingly diverse array of educational experiences with a broad range of healthcare partners across local, national, and international communities. The objective is to expand students’ leadership skills for serving at the forefront of the 21^st century heath care system by providing transformational experiences. Ensuring such opportunities remain available for each successive class requires maintaining strong bonds with an infrastructure of health providers throughout the community and continuing to build new networks on an ongoing basis, both through and with our recent graduates. The result is a veritable menu of practice immersion options tailored to each student’s needs and program of study. The purpose of this presentation is to discuss the impact of collaborative partnerships involving the DNP prepared nurse with intra and interprofessional colleagues to transform healthcare, identify methods to maximize partnerships, and to further explore the cultivation of partnerships between academia and practice as we develop nursing leaders for the future.

Established in 2009, the UMSONHS DNP prepares students for the highest level of nursing practice and includes an intensive practice immersion experience affording students the opportunity to apply, integrate and synthesize the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) DNP essentials while participating in practice experiences in a variety of health care settings. Prior to 2013, students identified local projects and preceptors across the community in coordination with faculty. The projects varied in respect to scope, depth and quality of experiences, preceptor qualifications, integrations of the identified DNP essentials, outcomes, and continuity. Challenges included limited access to ‘live/ real time’ practice improvement projects, lack of visibility regarding the DNP, contrasting/ lack of congruent goals and priorities between academic and practice partners, and a lack of continuity and project development in projects from cohort to cohort contributing to a feel of ‘lack of ownership’ impacting perceived and real sense of commitment.

In 2012 – 2013, SONHS leadership initiated collaborative meetings across the community and health care organizations to develop a formalized ‘DNP Practice Immersion Program’ involving multiple sites, formalized collaborative agreements, a menu of ongoing live practice improvement projects, established project criteria with deliverables, business planning components, integrated DNP essential requirements with project elements, and overall developed practice initiatives as a fusion of course objectives, individual student objectives, and agency/ organizational priorities. The program transitioned in 2013 beginning with five practice partnerships and has expanded to 12 practice partners in 2016 with a menu of over 45 ‘live’ practice projects each semester. These projects are predetermined with the practice partners and are subsequently ‘matched’ with students based on student requests, learning needs and goals, faculty recommendation, agency needs/ requirements, and finally mutual agreement between faculty, student, and agency representatives. Meetings are held regularly between academic and practice partners to review projects, revise current projects integrating updated deliverables, evaluate progress, assure continuity for long term projects, and develop new practice initiatives based on mutual needs, goals, and objectives. This presentation will highlight practice improvement case examples and will provide an update on overall aggregate outcomes of the UMSONHS DNP practice immersion program.