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Introduction
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN] (2006) offers a set of competencies for the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) education. In particular, Essential VIII, which describes the advanced nursing practice, suggests paying attention to the DNPs ability to perform culturally-sensitive assessments, develop evidence-based interventions, and establish relationships with patients and colleagues. The latter should be used, among other things, for guidance and education. Apart from that, the essential mentions several skills like analytical ones and systems thinking, also highlighting the importance of accountability. Overall, the essential is very comprehensive, and the present paper will employ its sub-competencies to assess my progress and plan for future education. The results indicate that the present course has contributed to my development with respect to all the sub-competencies of the essential, but I need additional work to proceed to correspond to their requirements.
Reflection
The major activities of this course were connected to the development of my DNP project, which consists of the implementation of the guidelines for depression management developed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2016a) at the VEGA Medical Center (Miami, FL). Predominantly, the course was focused on developing the IRB proposal, which involved the application of the seventh sub-competency of the essential in the form of reviewing the legal and organizational context of the project. The sub-competency requires the development of conceptual and analytical skills, which is a continuous and rather complex activity. I plan to proceed to apply the mentioned skills to my practice and education in order to be able to better correspond to AACNs (2006) requirements for the seventh sub-competency.
An important element of my work on the project was the transformation of the quality standards by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2016b) into a data collection tool. During this activity, I learned some additional information about depression and its diagnosing and management, which contributes to my ability to assess health and illness and develop relevant interventions. This ability is pertinent to the first and second sub-competencies of the essential; also, the fourth one, which highlights the skills related to delivering evidence-based care, can be connected to it. The present course was not directly geared towards the development of these competencies, although some elements relevant to them (in particular, evidence-based care) have been mentioned during the discussions. However, my education has always involved the activities that assisted in my professional growth with respect to the two competencies, and currently, I feel well-prepared for my duties as a DNP. Still, I recognize the fact that I need to note the new developments in nursing and other healthcare-related sciences. As a result, the work with the two competencies is a continuous one, and I plan to proceed to expand my knowledge and abilities through research and practice.
Among the activities that I have been engaged in most often during the course, the development of relationships and partnerships with my colleagues is worth noting since it corresponds to the third sub-essential. For example, my engagement in DNP updates can be viewed as an activity that helped me to practice communicating pertinent details to my peers. Also, I was involved in a form of partnership with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2016a) when I requested their permission to use their materials for the project. I acknowledge the fact that the ability to cooperate is crucial for high-quality care (Matziou et al., 2014), and I have been practicing relevant skills for an extended period of time. I feel well-prepared for this competency, but I appreciate the contribution of this course, and I plan to proceed to gain relevant experience and knowledge.
An interesting activity that I was engaged in during the course was the study of the principles of preparing a poster to disseminate the outcomes of my DNP project. I found the comprehensive advice by Christenbery and Latham (2012) especially useful, and I intend to employ some of the tools offered by Poster Presentations (2016) for my poster. This activity helped me to prepare better for the fifth and sixth competencies since they are concerned with guidance and education pertinent to DNP practice. I can employ the tools and advice provided by the mentioned literature to be able to develop more effective handouts and other visual aids for education and mentoring. As a result, I have advanced some of the skills that are relevant to the two sub-competencies, but I would need more practice to be confident in their use. The development of my poster may assist in this respect, and I plan to reflect on the activity while keeping in mind the two sub-competencies.
Conclusion
In summary, the application of essential VIII of AACN (2006) appears to prove its ability to assess ones progress with respect to DNP education. Moreover, the essential also can be used to single out the areas that require additional work, which makes it a suitable planning tool. In particular, it has helped me to determine the fact that the course continues to contribute to my development from the perspective of all the competencies, although some of them were paid less attention than other ones. Also, while all the competencies admittedly require continuous development, I found that I feel more confident with respect to relationship-related activities than, for example, my analytical and conceptual skills. As a result, I know that I need to pay more attention to the latter but still proceed to practice the former. Thus, the present reflection has achieved its goal, and the essential has fulfilled its purpose.
References
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2006). The essentials of doctoral education for advanced nursing practice. Washington, DC: Author.
Christenbery, T., & Latham, T. (2012). Creating effective scholarly posters: A guide for DNP students. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 25(1), 16-23.
Matziou, V., Vlahioti, E., Perdikaris, P., Matziou, T., Megapanou, E., & Petsios, K. (2014). Physician and nursing perceptions concerning interprofessional communication and collaboration. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 28(6), 526-533.
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2016a). Depression in adults: Recognition and management.
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2016b). Depression in adults: Quality Standards.
Poster Presentations. (2016). How to create a professional research poster. Web.
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