This article is protected by copyright. To share or copy this article, visit copyright.com. Use ISSN#10786791. To subscribe, visit alternative-therapies.com. PERSPECTIVES ON NURSING EDUCATION DOCTOR OF NURSING PRACTICE—INTEGRATIVE HEALTH AND HEALING AS A CHALLENGE Sandra R. Edwardson, , PhD RN Sandra R. Edwardson, PhD, RN, is the founding director of the Doctor of Nursing Practice Program at the University of Minnesota. (Altern Ther Health Med. 2010;16(5):32-33.) A new degree, the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), offers the nursing profession a golden opportunity to take integrative (complementary and alternative) strategies to a new place in health care. Whether nurses will accept this opportunity is a question worth pondering. Nursing’s historical adherence to a holistic philosophy of care makes this new option a natural for the profession. From Florence Nightingale’s focus on making the environment right for healing to modern emphasis on a thorough assessment of the way in which social, psychological, and spiritual factors affect physical healing, nurses have held themselves responsible for the whole of the patient experience. This consistency of purpose did not carry over into views on how we should prepare nurses for practice, however. Among these debates has been the search during much of the 20th century for the best way to prepare nurses at the doctoral level. While most attention focused on the PhD degree because of the need to further develop the knowledge base of the discipline, agitation for a practice doctorate frequently was an issue. The explosion of knowledge and growing complexity of care options raised concerns about how nurses can translate the latest knowledge into the day-to-day practice of the discipline. The search for an answer reached a turning point in October 2004 when the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) approved a report calling for a DNP as the highest preparation for the practice of the discipline and as a complement to the PhD. At last count, the AACN reported that 120 schools of nursing in 36 states and the District of Columbia offer the DNP degree and that another 161 are planning to do so.1 (There are 388 schools with advanced practice programs.) Most of these programs are designed for individuals with master’s degrees with a nursing specialty. The curricula of these programs are essentially topping off master’s preparation as nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, nurse midwives, and nurse anesthetists. A few schools, such as the University of Minnesota, are offering post-baccalaureate students a program that combines specialty preparation with the post-master’s curriculum. The AACN reports that 281 schools have plans for such programs. The organization also is recommending that certification bodies require the DNP for initial certification by 2015. Though there are no data about how many of these programs are seizing the opportunity to embrace fully the opportunity for holistic practice knowledge, there can be some confidence in believing that commitment remains. Anecdotal reports suggest that most schools are integrating content about complementary and alternative strategies as one of many intervention options in designing patient care plans. The University of Minnesota’s School of Nursing is among the few schools—if not the only one—to launch a DNP “major” in these therapies. Minnesota’s decision grew naturally from the Center for Spirituality and Healing that began in the 1990s within the university hospital and that was established by a doctorally prepared nurse. With the enthusiastic support of a senior vice president for health sciences, the center eventually became an academic health center–wide program that today attracts students from throughout the health sciences, non–health science schools, and the general public. It offers continuing education and credit-bearing courses that can be used to earn a graduate school minor. The director of the center is also a full professor in the school of nursing. All of these developments provided the fertile ground from which nursing’s specialty in Integrative Health and Healing (IHH) grew. As the DNP program was being developed, the faculty approved an introductory course in integrative concepts as a requirement for all clinical and nonclinical majors. In response to growing interest for a full IHH program, the next decision was to create an IHH major that combines the rich resources of the Center for Spirituality and Healing with the core courses of the DNP curriculum. Despite the newness of the concept, applications for the major are strong. An oft-asked question is, what will these graduates do? Because the first students have not yet graduated, we can’t answer the question with data. Evidence from the field, however, suggests that these students will find opportunities in a wide variety of settings, including hospitals, clinics, long-term care 32 ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES, sep/oct 2010, VOL. 16, NO. 5 Integrative Health and Healing and the Doctor of Nursing Practice previous page next page