[John]

Hello Alyssa,

Excellent and thoughtful question. From a legal standpoint, there are different standards for the nursing profession and the physician profession. However, for the DNP – Provider role, many job requirements may overlap with those of physicians. Within these requirements, DNP providers should aim to (1) continually learn the necessary knowledge in their field, (2) contribute to their field by participating in and/or investigating new research to incorporate into their practice, and (3) continually improve their skills and knowledge in their respective field of practice.

In addition, as nurses, we have the unique perspective of working with various teams. Although physicians also work with other teams, they primarily collaborate with physicians from other specialties. Due to their concentrated specialization, they may not have as much experience understanding the nuanced dynamics of working with staff not directly involved in executive clinical decisions related to diagnosing and treating patients’ health concerns. Such staff can include pharmacy, cleaning, food services, and various nursing staff. Nurses, on the other hand, regularly work with every team. This experience provides us with a unique understanding of how to improve healthcare efficiency and team dynamics, ultimately leading to better patient care. Also, RNs have learned the important skill of being patient advocates. From our inpatient experiences, we tend to have a holistic approach to treating patients, addressing every need during their stay, from understanding clinical requirements to something as trivial as food preferences. With this holistic knowledge, which I assume most experienced nurses possess, we can use it to inform our treatment decisions for patients.

-John

[Author]

Posts