A Nurse Practitioner's View

I'm aware that many people roll their eyes at another "year in review" blog post but it's been some time since my last post here and I think it is a good way to end the year. 2011 was an important year for me professionally as I completed my DNP back in May. It was a grueling 3 years (that I mostly chronicled here on this blog) and in my mind was the right choice for me at this point in my life. I approach clinical problems and scenarios through an alternative perspective and I have really embraced this philosophy. I hope to apply some of this new wisdom to the health care system and patients alike. Because I'm a glutton for punishment, following the completion of the DNP, in the Fall, I enrolled full-time in one of the University Based Training programs that was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's HITECH Act. Technology has always been my passion and I am so interested in the integration of information technology and health - it is real...

The systematic review that my colleagues and I have been working on (for what seems like forever!) was finally published in the Joanna Briggs Library of Systematic Reviews! It is very gratifying to have an official peer-reviewed publication under my belt. The title of our Review is, "The effectiveness of group medical visits on diabetes mellitus type 2 (dm2) specific outcomes in adults: A systematic review." The work that we studied on group medical visits (GMV) is truly interesting and can serve as a viable model to aide in type 2 diabetes management. Graduation is just over a week away and we just have one more presentation standing in our way. I will be posting some of my reflections on the program and on the DNP in the weeks to come. For now, I will enjoy this moment!

It's been a while since I last posted and it's because I've been somewhat bogged down with the last few projects for school. To briefly update: We completed our systematic review and meta-analysis on the effectiveness of group medical visits for patients with type 2 diabetes (specifically the ABCs: Hemoglobin A1c, Blood Pressure and Cholesterol[LDL]). We have received peer-review feedback and have edited and resubmitted and are anxiously awaiting their response. We implemented an actual group medical visit model in our clinical agency site and are gathering data and tweaking accordingly via the PDSA cycle. Plus, I am trying to get motivated to work on the last individual paper which must be submitted for publication to a peer-reviewed journal (rough draft is due this Friday and I don't have much thus far - which completely explains why I am blogging right now!) Finally, we are working on our final presentation for the group medical visit project. Whew! We are also get...

I recently wrote about my pursuit of the DNP and my rationale for it. As promised, here is the first brief installment of posts chronicling my final year of school (I actually have 10 months left now but who's counting!) Part of the final project is writing a systematic review. Since one of the principles of our program is evidence-based practice (EBP), our final project must be framed in the form of a PICO question. That is, Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome. My group and I are still tweaking our question but it is centered on adults with type II diabetes. (Plus, I do need to maintain some level of suspense throughout these posts!) In order to gather the evidence, a comprehensive, systematic, and exhaustive search of the literature must be performed using key words and MeSH terms to narrow down the number of hits we get on our search. This is a critical part of any systematic review since the evidence gleaned will lay the groundwork for the review. We are searc...

It seems these days, anyone and everyone is willing to share their thoughts and opinions about the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree. These include non-nurses and nurses alike. Well, I thought I'd take a stab at it as well since I am now 2/3 through my pursuit of the DNP. If you were to strictly listen to some of those opinions, you would have a very poor view of just what exactly this academic degree is and what it can (and can't) do. Perhaps I can dispel or at least clarify some of these points, at least from my view. First, no one is "forcing" anyone to go back to school to get this degree. The 140,000+ already practicing NPs will continue to practice without the need to return for formal academic education. However, starting in 2015 , it is presumed that MS programs will transition to the DNP. Second, there is some variation in the DNP program types. This is incredibly frustrating to me since not all programs are created equal. The DNP is not synonymous with...