Nursing Profession Paper

As healthcare has evolved, the nursing profession has undergone changes as well. When I graduated from nursing school in 1994, I just needed to get a nursing degree. It was important that I had a license that allowed me to practice, whether it be an ADN or a BSN degree. My nursing instructors were mastered prepared nurses, and the only DNP in our department was the Dean of Nursing. Times have changed, going to college doesn’t always mean you will have a job especially a job you desire. Due to an aging population, bedside nursing jobs are still in high demand; however, many nurses are choosing not to be bedside nurses. They are advancing their education and are seeking careers in research, leadership, or educational positions instead. Nurses

While advanced practice nurses are on the rise to help ensure that all patients have available providers, the role of the doctoral nurse practitioner (DNP) is imperative to healthcare. DNPs will make a dramatic impact on health policy by nursing education and improvements in patient care in health settings and this will help decrease the gaps within accessing healthcare (Sawyer-McGee, 2016). The advancement to DNP is not viewed as a role, but as and academic degree (AACN, 2015). The DNP nurse promotes the development of a broader assortment of analytical, philosophical, and evaluative processes. This degree helps prepare the individual to become a stronger nurse leader within the clinical, academic, administrative, community, and in the political policy arena to achieve change. According to Sawyer-McGee (2016), the DNP will help “create and support a political voice for nurses that can be influential at the local, state and federal levels” (para. 10). The DNP nurse is prepared with the variety of skills needed to become an agent of transformation within the nursing profession and raise the advanced nursing practice to a new level. It is essential that our new entry level nurses are educated by the most experienced and academically prepared