Purpose

In the final quarter of the DNP Program students have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the role of the DNP prepared APRN through NUR 7938 DNP Immersion Practicum.  This course is a chance for students to not only hone their clinical skills but also to embrace the systems thinking approach that is unique to DNP graduates.

In their daily practice advanced practice nurses are involved in initiatives to enhance patient care and improve health outcomes for patient populations at their clinic or organization, in addition to patient care. To prepare students for independent practice and work within a clinic or healthcare organization, the Immersion leadership project in NUR 7938 DNP Immersion Practicum will allow students to: 

• Develop strategies to integrate and balance your patient care workload with work on systems level health initiatives.
• Hone your skills in being a change agent participating in and leading health initiatives.
• Participate in inter-professional collaboration with other members of the healthcare team.
• Positively impact patient populations and organizational systems & policies to improve patient care and health outcomes.

See NUR 7938 syllabus and assignment for further details and requirements.

Examples of leadership projects include:

• Quality improvement initiatives
• Implementation and evaluation of evidence-based practice guidelines
• Integration of a practice change
• Design and evaluation of new models of care
• Design and evaluation of health care programs
• Evaluation of a practice model
• Policy implementation, analysis, revision
• Design and use of databases to retrieve information for decision-making, planning, evaluation
• Design and evaluation of innovative uses of technology to enhance/evaluate care