Hi Avery,

I have a different situation in my workplace. I work in a small inpatient psychiatric facility and most of my coworkers are in NP school. We are very encouraging towards each other and are encouraging our other coworkers to get started on their terminal degrees. I did notice that my personal friends who are nurses do not share the same…[Read more]

Hello April,

There is a collective feeling that certain healthcare professionals, particularly medical doctors, disdain the thought of “nurses” using the title doctor. I have an experience I would like to share. I was in nursing school working as a CNA and one of the patients started to get confused and declined a little bit. I believe a rapid…[Read more]

Wow, this is so disheartening to hear. Sadly, I believe these comments come from a bit of ignorance. As difficult as it is to hear these comments, I feel these conversations position the DNP hopeful well to inform others and take steps to change this mentality. I am pursuing a master’s degree in nursing administration and often I get the other s…[Read more]

As the profession of nursing continues to grow and evolve, I can see that there is still much confusion and misunderstanding about how these roles and degrees exist and what each one can bring to the table. I would assume that administrators in academia would be slightly more aware than perhaps in the practice setting but maybe that is not…[Read more]

I am in the same situation working toward a DNP without an APRN license. I currently work in nursing academia teaching in the undergraduate program and plan to continue working there once I complete my degree. Although in academia there is still a slight favor toward the PhD as the “gold standard” degree for faculty I have seen a shift in the las…[Read more]

I work as a faculty in an undergraduate program school of nursing. There is compensation in this role for earning a DNP which is equal to the pay increase for earning any doctoral degree (PhD, DNP, EDD etc). This isn’t a significant increase for the degree itself but does allow further opportunity for advancement. Once the degree is earned the D…[Read more]

Hi Susan,

Thank you so much for sharing your insight and all the information. I agree that this is a concern for the DNP graduate, having worked hard to earn the degree it seems only fair that the DNP should be allowed to use the title of doctor. I think the main concern does stem from confusing the patients in clinics and hospitals but as…[Read more]

To my knowledge, my organization does not compensate specifically for obtaining an academic DNP degree. However, they compensate if an individual earns a degree higher than what is required for their position. So, if a BSN is required for a specific nursing position and the nurse earns an MSN degree, that nurse will be compensated with one…[Read more]