DNP Competencies Reflection

Introduction

Doctorate program focused on advancing nursing practice DNP encompasses demanding rigorous expectations for the individuals that are enrolled for the said programs. A scholarly approach coupled with the commitment to promoting nursing profession characterizes the involvement in a DNP program. A nursing student taking part in the program is bound to attain the competencies that a DNP-prepared nursing practitioner is expected to gain. Nursing science is identified as a significant guide to nursing practice (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2006). However, it is a requirement that the evidence-based knowledge is translated to aid in the smooth implementation of evidence-based interventions. In this manner, it is right to argue that taking part in the NR700 course has offered the opportunity for interaction with the necessary materials to gain the competencies as stipulated in the essentials of a DNP program. The current paper, therefore, provides a chance to reflect on the acquired DNP competencies through taking NR700 course.

You Decide Reflection

The engagement with the course content has offered the opportunity to enhance my knowledge of nursing metaparadigm further. An enhanced understanding of the nursing metaparadigm is vital in the event of appraising evidence-based research to design evidence-based interventions that are significant for practice change. The metaparadigm of person, environment, health, and nursing informs on the required means of nurses’ involvement with the patients to ensure that optimal outcomes are achieved (Branch et al., 2016). In this context, I have the confidence that the knowledge gained is adequate and I can design evidence-based practice change interventions that address the areas of concern for the different metaparadigm for optimal performances.

Therefore, ways of knowing provide the means of determining which knowledge is appropriate for inclusion to influence required changes in nursing practice. Evidence obtained from research studies must be verifiable in guiding the nurses to administer procedures through established norms of operation. Accordingly, my current knowledge has allowed me to know that the ways of knowing also facilitates the processes of integrating the evidence-based nursing science into nursing practice. The acquired EBP knowledge and actions will influence future job engagement, and the gained knowledge has provided the means to control the practice of other nurses to ensure that practice changes are initiated for an improved outcome of care delivery.

Moreover, philosophical ideas concerning human health characterize nursing knowledge, and nurses are required to an understanding of the concepts to improve outcome since such thoughts are the drivers of the advances in nursing practice. Human beings are said to be multifaceted, and from such postulations, there are related nursing phenomena, and the paradigmatic perspectives play significant roles in understanding the existing associations. An identified trend is that some theories and models are found to follow the different paradigms formulated. The determined link between the models and theories that follow specific paradigms are found to work to enhance professional practices in nursing through developing nursing knowledge (Bahramnezhad et al., 2015). Therefore, I can say that I am fully prepared in this line and will use the experience to determine the relationships that exist between the paradigms and the theories and models to formulate means of influencing nurses’ practices that focus on the areas of interest for institutional practice change.

Although there exists a disagreement in the professional literature concerning nursing theory that confuses the nurses making them dismiss the relevance of nursing theory in informing nursing practice, it is indisputable that nursing theory is significant to nursing practice. The question of concern is on how nursing theory has shaped nursing practice (Mawdsley, 2005). My understanding of the link between the advancement of practice based on the postulations of the different nursing theories, as learned from the course, is the key to unlocking the confusion that exists among nurses concerning the relevance of theories in informing practice. The new roles that I acquire following the completion of the course give the opportunity to interpret the arguments to enable the nurses to obtain a sense of identity through allowing the managers, patients together with other healthcare practitioners to identify the unique contributions of nurses to healthcare service delivery. Also offering the elaborations on the definition of the theories will be a forward step in informing nurses of their roles in practice that works to improve involvement with care further.

Nonetheless, there exist known truths that the research works performed can either follow theoretical perspectives or a researched can be quantified as practice-based research based on the design. In the different formats that research studies can be conducted, it is determined that there are established means of undertaking the processes and such methods of engagement are the ones that are considered to be the most important (Friberg, 2015). The knowledge gained through the course has enabled me to understand that there are tests that allow for the determination of the significance of research design and the relevance and the reliability of the content that the researcher(s) has published. In this manner, as long as the virtues of conducting research are established, the format through which the study was conducted becomes of less significance.

The other important aspects for consideration that also facilitate the integration of research knowledge into nursing practice are the concepts of bibliography and annotated bibliography. The ideas are critical in the process of appraising nursing research to acquire the knowledge that is needed to inform changes in nursing practice (Wood & Kerr, 2010). In my endeavors to search for EBP from research to design evidence-based interventions, I will involve the use of annotated bibliography to offers summary of the discussions that the authors of the selected research studies regarding the issue under scrutiny. Bibliography, on the other hand, will be used for listing the sources that are appraised in the search for EBPs. Through using the two concepts in the processes of valuing research, their differences are established.

The formulated research questions influence the effectiveness of the research studies’ appraisals. Similarly, there are means to develop searchable practice questions to ensure that the outcomes of the involvements are efficient. Accordingly, the course content has provided the opportunity for extensive understanding of both the background and the foreground questions that are critical in the formulation of searchable practice questions. Formulating working searchable questions must first follow the PICO framework that stands for population, intervention, comparison, and outcome. A FINER criterion that stands for feasible, interesting, novel, ethical, and relevant has been proven to influence the formulation of working searchable questions (Aslam & Emmanuel, 2010).

Consequently, a literature search is identified as the only means of obtaining evidence-based nursing science for addressing nursing practice problems. However, to attain search heights, it is a requirement to formulate methods of conducting the literature search to the best knowledge. Literature reviews answer focused questions, and in the light of this, I am confident that I gained the best education that I will use in formulating the best-focused questions in preparation for literature reviews. Although the purpose of the evaluation influences the type of study to conduct, it is found that all the literature searches follow standard criteria to realize the ultimate goal of the review. Therefore, the method to use in directing all the future literature searches includes, first, formulating concise inclusion criteria followed by justifying the years searched and the databases coupled with identifying the search strategies to be undertaken. The third step for consideration is developing the search terms that are guided by the PICO framework and taking the fourth and the final action that entails developing search skills for the said literature review (Smith & Noble, 2016).

Conclusion

In summary, it is right to argue that the NR700 course has appropriately prepared me as a DNP nurse practitioner in the context of scientific underpinnings for practice. Firstly, interacting with materials pertaining nursing metaparadigm has enhanced my understanding of the means to engage with the patients in the care environment and the insights gained through ways of knowing all work to aid in the effective handling of different situations and phenomena for improved outcome. Equally, the paradigmatic perspectives of nurses offered means of understanding how the nursing theories and models all work to advance nursing practice. Appraising nursing research is the means to use to infuse the EBPs into practices to design the evidence-based interventions. In the line of this, there is extensive understanding of the processes of formulating searchable questions and conducting literature reviews to obtain nursing knowledge that will be influential in attaining the new roles to be adopted in nursing practice. Therefore, NR700 course engagement has proven to be worthy of the time spent and for the new insights gained.