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.