Time-Management for DNP Students

I am a procrastinator, so I wanted to take a minute to encourage DNP students to please manage your time. The day only has 24 hours and they can go by fast especially if you are in DNP school. DNP programs are all about writing and creativity (2 things that I suck in). Writing and creating something can take up days or even weeks (depending on the grading percentage involved). I spend at least 40 hours a week to write or read something for school. Even with a 40 hour investment, most weeks feels unaccomplished to me.

If possible, please give up on your social life. Remember you can go back to that once you graduate.

This post does not mean that you should deprive yourself of everything except school work. You have to make it a point to find some time during the day to relax or revive yourself; otherwise you will easily burn yourself out from school and studying.

Try to prioritize your schedule daily and take care of yourself.  Good Luck!

Why the DNP program?

The profession of nursing is attempting to provide academic preparation and title comparable to other advanced clinical degrees in the healthcare arena such as Medical Doctor (MD), Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD), Doctor of Public Health (DrPH), Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT), etc. The Doctor of Nursing Practice degree (DNP) is the highest academic preparation for nursing practice. For new nursing practitioners, the DNP degree may become the requirement to practice advanced nursing by the year of 2015. The DNP degree focuses on incorporating scientific findings/knowledge into practice, thereby improving the health care services provided to our patient population. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), today’s health care system requires safe and advanced nursing practice to transition scientific evidence into practice. A DNP program prepares the advanced provider with extensive leadership training and education to lead the changing health care system. The DNP programs are congruent with the Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice recommendations. The essentials guide the curriculum of DNP programs and will reflect much of the coursework. These essentials are as follows:

• ·         Scientific underpinnings for practice
• ·         Organizational and systems leadership for quality improvement and systems thinking
• ·         Clinical scholarship and analytical methods for evidence-based practice
• ·         Information systems/technology and patient care technology for the improvement and transformation of healthcare
• ·         Healthcare policy for advocacy in healthcare
• ·         Interprofessional collaboration for improving patient and population health outcomes
• ·         Clinical prevention and population health for improving the nation's health
• ·         Advanced nursing practice

How to get to your ‘dream’ FINAL DNP PROJECT

Some schools call the final DNP project as the “capstone” project. Anyway, this final project requires the student to synthesize and apply learning’s of these three years in school to a project of the student’s interest.  The focus of a three year DNP program is to enable the student to critique researches, apply research into practice, and evaluate the clinical change that you applied for the betterment of health care. The DNP program encourages evidence-based practice. Therefore, the final DNP project should focus on an evidence-based practice change that will improve health care or patient outcomes in one way or the other.

Choosing a topic for the ideal DNP project is the often stressful process for a student; however, remember that the options for a health care or patient outcome change are endless. A multitude of new research comes out daily, so a student need not worry about running out of topics for your DNP project.

Before finalizing a DNP project topic:

• ·         Ask around for ideas for your ‘dream’ DNP project.
• ·         Formulate a well developed question
• ·         Ensure that the topic of choice can be supported by a sufficient amount of research (preferably systemic review studies)
• ·         DO NOT lead yourself with the belief that the world can be changed with your DNP project.
• ·         Try to take on a project that would not consume too much of your time, because in reality, once you start your project, it takes more time than you could have imagined.  (keep in mind that you will be taking other classes along with this project implementation that semester)
• ·         Do not worry yourself about sample size; the important thing is for you to graduate your program. You can always change the world after graduation as well.

Hope these tips will help you pick the right DNP project. Enjoy researching your topic and implementing a change to improve health care or patient outcomes.