Academia has always been at the forefront of not just advanced nursing practice, but nursing science as a whole. Some hospitals participate in the pursuit to reach Magnet Status- which is a status that indicates that nursing staff provide initiatives to create change within the hospital. To achieve Magnet status, nursing staff are required to have a BSN in nursing to qualify, providing that nursing staff have the education to participate in the changes needed to create a better work environment, for the current, and future of the hospital. This initiative relates to advanced practice nurses obtaining the DNP degree versus the MSN. It prepares the advanced practice practitioner to be a change agent in an ever-changing field of nursing. Transformational leadership has been described as has been described as a “style of leadership in which the leader identifies the needed change, creates vision to guide change through inspiration, and executes the change with the commitment of the members of the group” (Marshall, 2011, p. 3). DNP prepared nurses may find this style of leadership powerful because they may have opportunities to identify areas that need change by working alongside their colleagues (Chism, 2019). Having advance practice nurses obtain a DNP versus a MSN degree affords the practitioner to be the change agent to create a brighter future for nursing.

Chism, L.A. (2019) The Doctor of Nursing Practice: A Guidebook for Role Development and Professional Issues (4the ed). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. ISBN 13: 978-1284141856.

We just covered this issue of how DNP graduates can fill the nursing faculty gap in my advanced role and collaboration class. After reading this article, I agree with the issue of making a doctorate in nursing, the main entry level in nursing advanced practice.
The roles of Nurse practitioners(NP) have increased in the past years, and it is advisable to attain a doctorate so that more improved care based on evidence-based practices is provided. DNP graduates can use their knowledge, highest education, expertise, and background to fill all the complicated roles of the increasing demand in advanced nursing care. DNP graduates are qualified to help decrease this gap due to the knowledge and skills we have in research. Research is vital in furthering nursing and advanced science inquiry. A doctorate graduate is qualified, and I agree to educate all the NP to the doctorate level. It will be challenging to convince all NP to attain more education by 2025; however, this will be an outstanding achievement in the nursing community. Transitioning the current working nurse practitioners to a DNP entry level can be done by working collaboratively with states, national educational institutes, and health care systems. Financial resources can also help boost NP to attain their degrees. More faculties are needed that can teach NP to DNP. However, there is a shortage of nursing educators due to less pay and a large workload. Financial incentives should be provided to entice more nurses to enter the education field to help educate more nurses.

Hello Dera,

I think you brought up an exceptional and much needed topic regarding the mental health of PMHNPs and/or DNPs. Struggling with mental health has become less of a stigma through the years, but individuals still have the fear of looking incompetent or unknowledgeable with in their given specialty, causing more mental stress than need be. I do agree that universities provide more resources to help support in any mental stress compared to employers, but I believe seeking help and support always starts with the individual itself. As a current registered nurse in a psychiatric outpatient facility, there are boundaries that I always have to remember when treating patients. Autonomy is still number one and if the individual is not prepared to obtain or seek support, that they have that right to do so. Now in regards to mentorship becoming a support for newly employed DNPs/PMHNPs, I find that to be a very helpful program to be implemented within all employment. It is unfortunate to say but most newly graduate nursing/ post graduate nursing jobs do not get full and proper training and having a mentorship program seems efficient in theory. That is why RN residencies are becoming more and more common for new nurses. The barriers I see though is that these residencies come with a very low pay rate compared to regular nursing positions and I believe individuals would rather take the increased pay with less training than a pay cut with more training. There are issues that arise with this topic, but I believe your point discussed is something needing more research and preparation for it to be successful but is definitely a topic to continue to be discussed.

Dear Dera Harvey,

As we see more mental health issues, especially in the wake of COVID-19, every APRN needs behavioral health care experience. As a healthcare providers, we need to understand how to care for mental health patients, which presents unique challenges, as the patient’s emotional problems may be less visible than physiologic ones. In the Ethiopian community, mental issues are increasing. Many of the patients are young adults. Most of them are confronting depression. Biological, psychological, and social factors are more prominent causes than drugs or alcohol in Ethiopian immigrant cases. Social factors (environmental, social, work, and relationships) seem to be the leading cause of mental illness in Ethiopian immigrants’ lives.

As an advanced healthcare provider, I have been interested in discovering the specific social factors leading to these mental disorders. These people have been coming from other countries with huge expectations such as, “Life is so easy in America,” and so on. When faced with the realities of American life, their expectations don’t match, and they become overstressed, leading to depression. As an FNP, understanding and identifying mental health problems is very important. APRNs’ goal in the community is to spotlight the issues and teach them the preventative modalities to function in society before and after mental illness has been significant. As an APRN, the ultimate goal is to improve healthcare on a local and international level continuously. I believe that APRNs’ path through advanced education will eventually be the key to unlocking the doors of improved healthcare.