Essay Prof Wears No Clothes

M Kelly Reaction Essay 3/9/09

The Professor Wears No Clothes Michelle Kelly RN, MN, FNP DNP student Summary I have been reading several current articles on the development, competencies and evaluation of the newly implemented and evolving doctorate of nursing practice (DNP) degree. The Judy Honig and Janice Smolowitz articles in the 2008 Clinical Scholars Review made me more aware of the shortcomings than the strengths of the DNP role. I think it is worth mentioning the DNP is a role I am both pursuing and pondering as I go through the program at University of San Francisco. The articles in the Review describe and justify the practical aspects of measuring DNP competencies and portray methods of evaluating scholarly practice at the doctorate level. This information is are extremely useful and I hope to use their template of case narratives in my DNP portfolio, yet I find it disturbing that new doctorate of nursing practice is seen as a solution to the faculty shortage without one teaching competency listed. Loomis and Cohen (2007) found over 50% of DNP students (n=69) planned to pursue teaching after their degree completion. The authors have a prolonged discussion of the worthiness of the DNP to be “tenure-able”. Federal and state funding pockets are deep for the DNP who secures employment as a nurse educator. I cannot help myself; I have dubbed my commentary the Professor Wears No Clothes because of the lack of faculty preparation in DNP programs and even more concerning is the absence of acknowledgement of the gap in teaching preparation in the Honig and Smolowitz articles. Evaluation Am I the only one who thinks the current academic constructs of nursing education, tenure and effective teaching are in dire need of reworking? It seems as if we in nursing education are about to do what we have always done and send in un-prepared nurses with new doctorates who will (or not) learn teaching on the job. This seems to be in concert with my experience with new PhD prepared nurse who can research but can not educate and the new Ed.D nurse faculty who can teach but is not a researcher, and the real issue, at least in my mind, is that neither degree prepares a clinical competent nurse faculty. And now, we have the DNP arrive on the scene with degree in hand, loans to pay off and power points to prepare.

M Kelly Reaction Essay 3/9/09

I have heard the connection and intention of the DNP graduate being able to take on a faculty role since my introduction to the DNP program in May of 2008. Am I alone in thinking that the advanced practitioner who can expertly manage complex cases and populations does not solely qualify one to teach effectively in higher education? The eight Essentials of the American Association of the College of Nursing (AACN) do not list any teaching or faculty competencies. In fact the lack of teaching preparation is described in AACN’s Comparison of DNP to PhD document. The lack of faculty role preparation to competently teach clinical students (let alone didactic) is outlined in the Review’s DNP competencies. My experience as a nurse practitioner (who fell into teaching because of my masters degree) over that last 15 years was fostered with strong faculty mentors who made sure I became competent in classroom management, curriculum design and evaluation, educational digital literacy and much more while on the job. The conditions that new nursing faculty face are more and more demanding in terms of students learning needs, administration, quality of clinical placements and sadly fewer experienced nurse faculty are available in schools of nursing to mentor them. Conclusion We are as a profession at a critical intersection- and the DNP, while heralded as THE terminal clinical degree and will not be able to address the nursing faculty shortage. I see the rush to “produce” more clinicians with doctorates as adding to the dilemma we face in nursing education. We cannot continue to portray DNP’s as the answer to nursing faculty shortage without including teaching competencies in their preparation. It is time for discussions about new paradigms and the outcome of those discussions transformed into action to effectively prepare the clinical competent nurse educator for today’s needs. Let’s creatively explore and trial new ways to clothe the DNP Professor.