Nursing Management47(9):13-16, September 2016. Accordingly, today's healthcare leader's skill set must be adaptive, keeping customers at the center and placing strong emphasis on problem identification, change management, innovation, inspiration, and engagement.1,2 In addition, the pursuit of quality calls for an improved patient experince, service excellence, and reducing care costs, all of which present further challenges to traditional healthcare delivery models and organizational leadership.3 The doctor of nursing practice (DNP) degree focused on executive leadership prepares nurses for leadership roles within the healthcare system. From an organizational perspective, important implications include the creation and fostering of an environment conducive to EBP to create innovative strategies to facilitate clinical problem solving. For information on cookies and how you can disable them visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy. Development of EBP clinical programs to assist individuals and communities to manage health further supports the goals of our changing healthcare environment. 2. A critical skill for DNP-prepared leaders is the ability to access healthcare policies to ascertain organizational fit. Often times, students of DNP programs further study health policy by incorporating the topic into their scholarly project. The DNP-prepared leader possesses key traits to serve as a change agent within complex healthcare environments. The DNP graduate will be awarded twenty-one credit hours for the degree. Program Overview. A healthcare leader must strive to continually evaluate policies to sustain effective processes that lead to appropriate access to care and safe practice environments for patients and providers, along with maintaining the highest quality of care provided. The DNP-prepared leader integrates nursing theory and scientific principles from the social sciences to guide nursing practice for complex patient and family conditions in a variety of practice settings.5 As part of the integration of current evidence into bedside practice, the DNP-prepared leader can facilitate the increased use and application of research evidence through translational science. PhD graduates are equipped to become a nursing researcher, hold various health policy positions, or assume full-time teaching and administrative positions in academia. The executive DNP graduate gains the knowledge and skills necessary to develop and lead diverse interprofessional teams. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. This becomes increasingly important for leaders in a changing healthcare climate where emphasis is placed on Value-Based Purchasing and penalties for hospital readmission, clinical complications, hospital-acquired conditions, and errors. NURS 672a: Clinical Practicum, 3 unts. The executive DNP graduate has the skills and knowledge to positively affect both patient and population outcomes through the development of new care models. Regardless of whether healthcare policy is created through governmental actions, institution decision making, or organizational standards, nurses engaging in policy development contribute to creating a healthcare system that meets the needs of its constituents. Nurse practitioners are the healthcare provider of choice for millions of Americans. As the content of policy education is formalized within DNP programs, it is up to educators to demonstrate the relevance of policy in practice, including instructing APRNs on how to determine the basis for proposed policy changes. 5. This early stage lends itself well to developing an awareness and understanding of the issues, making this the first real meaningful step towards influencing the ways in which healthcare is organized, paid for and delivered. 3. The Online Doctor of Nursing Practice program at USA prepares graduates to provide the most advanced level of nursing care for individuals and communities, to address the major issues of healthcare, to research theoretical issues and transform research results into better care, to fill healthcare leadership roles and to teach the next generation of nurses. Today's healthcare system leader has an increasingly difficult job. The pursuit of care quality calls for an improved patient experince, service excellence, and cost containment, which require a different skill set than what has traditionally been ascribed to the C-suite. Additionally, the DNP-prepared leader understands the importance of navigating complex healthcare systems, as well as the organizational and policy implications of patient care decisions.5 Changes in the healthcare business model are occurring at a rapid pace; reimbursement and compensation methods are now being driven by population health and avoidance of costly hospital care.1 These changing reimbursement incentives challenge systems to promote innovative team-based care models to improve quality and services. The DNP is a degree, not a role. The complexity of patient and family conditions requires input from a variety of disciplines, providing a breadth of experience and understanding to solve healthcare problems.5 This practice model of multidisciplinary collaboration has become the gold standard for care. IHI triple aim initiative: better care for individuals, better health for populations, and lower per capita costs. Often times, students of DNP programs further study health policy by incorporating the topic into their scholarly project. 7. Nursing education programs at the doctoral level recognize that advanced practice nurses are uniquely qualified to develop, implement, and evaluate health policies. Others remain in the field and use their qualifications to take on NP roles like those listed previously. Mitchell P, Wynia M, Golden R, et alCore principles and values of effective team-based health care. ETSU College of Nursing's DNP program prepares advanced practice nurses and executive nurse leaders to assess and evaluate evidence from research and translate or use the findings to affect practice change to enhance and promote quality of care.