The Efficacy of a Doctor of Nursing Practice Mentoring Program

Mentoring creates opportunities for guidance, collaboration, partnerships, career development, personal growth, problem solving, leadership, and scholarly advancement among others. Mentoring is not a new concept to health care or to nursing. Nurses and others in the health care field depend on various individuals for their career growth and developmental networking. Doctor of nursing practice (DNP) graduates are encouraged to collaborate with other disciplines, assume leadership roles, and serve as mentors at the clinical, educational, or executive level. Mentoring relationships are essential for the DNP graduate to continue growing scholarly, professionally, and personally.

Qualitative Analysis of Comprehensive Care in Doctor of Nursing Practice Case Narratives: Astuteness and Advocacy Fall Short Without Audacity

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) programs have focused on competencies needed to deliver comprehensive patient care across settings and time. Endorsed by professional nursing associations, these competencies are typically evaluated through detailed case narratives written by DNP candidates. Beyond competency metrics, the essence of comprehensive care for advanced nursing practice has not been carefully explicated. In this study, a phenomenological analysis is applied to a purposive sample of 12 DNP case narratives to identify the meaning of comprehensive care as transmitted in practice. Clinical assessment precision, diagnostic acumen, and advocacy emerge consistently but only the more audacious nurse practitioners directly challenge health system fragmentation.

Leadership for the Integration of Comprehensive Care and Interprofessional Collaboration

The clinically prepared Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) professional is uniquely prepared to integrate the concepts of comprehensive care with interprofessional collaboration. Leadership skills and team-based competencies can shift the academic paradigm from educating in silos to interprofessional education, thereby addressing the problems originating from a fragmented health care system. A successful nurse-managed clinic accredited as a Level 2 patient-centered medical home, under the leadership of a DNP professional, is described. Interprofessional team training in comprehensive care is then described in a piloted program known as the Deans’ Honors Colloquium.

Federal Initiatives in Self-Management for Patients With Multiple Chronic Conditions: Implications for the Doctor of Nursing Practice

The ratio of people aged 65 years and older compared to people aged 20–64 years are expected to rise by 80% over the next decade. Currently, 70% of the American population is living with a chronic disease, and 2 out of 3 have multiple chronic conditions (MCC). The purpose of this review is to identify the current Federal Initiatives funded by the Affordable Care Act that are being used to demonstrate and promote the use of self-management practices in patients who are living with MCCs. Patients with MCCs who engage in self-management practices have shown to have a reduction in disease complications and exacerbations, less hospitalization and readmission rates, improved physical functioning, and adherence to their medical plan.

Intraoperative Implementation of a Tissue Sealant on All Lung Surgery Patients: A Quality Improvement Project

More than 200,000 patients undergo pulmonary surgery annually. Air leaks after pulmonary surgery are a common complication and represent a substantial clinical problem. Air leaks can increase chest tube time, increase pain, reduce mobility, and increase hospital length of stay. The application of a synthetic surgical lung sealant (SLS) to lung surfaces during surgery in patients at risk for an air leak has been advocated to reduce these complications.The aim of the project was to reduce or eliminate air leaks, decrease chest tube time, and decrease length of stay by applying an FDA-approved tissue sealant during all pulmonary surgeries. The population of focus were adult pulmonary surgery patients undergoing pulmonary surgery.Data were collected on 146 patients: 72 patients the year prior to the intervention and 74 the year after implementation of the intervention. The incidence of air leak was significantly lower; the number of comorbidities was statistically higher in the group following implementation. There were, however, no significant differences in chest tube duration and length of hospital stay. The use of lung sealant on all patients undergoing pulmonary surgery had a positive outcome without any adverse effects and is now standard of practice.

Ethical Choices in Aesthetic Medicine and Beyond

Practitioners will likely encounter significant ethical dilemmas during their professional careers. As these issues arise, practitioners will be required to analyze ethical issues and evaluate available choices. This case study discusses such an ethical dilemma in the context of aesthetic plastic surgery. The aesthetic provider is confronted with the question of whether or not to provide an ethically questionable procedure. The thought process discussed here can be extended beyond aesthetic medicine to all practitioners facing ethical dilemmas. An analysis of the principles of bioethics was undertaken. The principles of bioethics were then applied to the dilemma faced by the practitioner. Finally, a practical, 4-step system was constructed to be incorporated by the practitioner to guide in making ethically sound decisions.