Introduction
The doctor of nursing practice (DNP) career provides broad professional perspectives and is highly valued in the United States healthcare industry. The job includes diverse skills appliances and multiple responsibilities; thus, a specific curriculum was developed by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses to enable the students to receive a complex scope of knowledge. The AACN included several essentials that must be perceived as the fundamental competencies for the DNPs’ professional development (Giardino & Hickey, 2020). The inter-professional collaboration for improving patient and population health outcomes and organizational and systems leadership for quality improvement are the categories’ examples (DNP Nursing Curriculum Planning Solutions, n. d.). Indeed, the competencies address the universal requirements for DNPs and can be applied to the psychiatry area, where patient outcomes significantly depend on the healthcare providers’ professionalism. This paper aims to describe the two DNP essentials identified above and exemplify their application in psychiatric practice.
The DNP Essential of Organizational and Systems Leadership for Quality Improvement
Execution skills are essential for DNPs of all practice areas, and the learning curriculum addresses the development of critical abilities, such as active listening, teamwork, responsibilities, and evidence-based decision-making. The essential of organizational and systems leadership for quality improvement emphasizes the continuous need for change in healthcare organizations. Indeed, technologies, policies, and scientific innovations influence the practice and require nursing practitioners to adjust their skills and knowledge timely and efficient. DNPs are professionals capable of advocating for quality improvement, applying workable strategies, and executing projects (Chavez et al., 2019). Furthermore, the essential of organizational leadership includes the research strategies’ implementation and development of an ability to create workable interventions based on the observations of a facility’s main issues and practice gaps (Giardino & Hickey, 2020). Such skill sets are applicable to all areas, and professionals can use them as fundamentals to building more specific work approaches.
Indeed, in the clinical psychiatry setting, the leadership for quality improvement can be tied to the practices to enhance patient safety and the services’ efficiency. The DNPs of psychiatric organizations interact with subordinate practitioners, and leadership skills are necessary to notice issues timely and create a workable intervention that encourages the workers to react (Chavez et al., 2019). As patients frequently have complicated conditions that require specific treatment and increased attention, it might be challenging to motivate the nurses to change their approaches for quality improvement.
The DNP Essential of Inter-Professional Collaboration for Improving Patient and Population Health Outcomes
DNPs interact with nurses, administrators, physicians, and executives in their workplace, and in the cases of comprehensive interventions, they can also cooperate with policymakers and community representatives. Consequently, the essential of inter-professional collaboration enables practitioners to develop effective communication, delegation, and project management skills to improve patient outcomes through the activities performed by diverse professionals (McGuinness et al., 2020). The appliance of these capabilities can be illustrated through the psychiatric care setting example. Indeed, a DNP who participated in the differential diagnosis of a patient with a severe mental disorder can find and encourage others to collaborate and impact the client’s outcomes (Kilbourne et al., 2018). A physician can be asked to assist in the initial treatment, and local social workers to clarify if any support exists for individuals with difficult psychiatric conditions. If a multidisciplinary issue is identified for a specific population, a DNP has sufficient authority to advocate for quality improvement intervention and assign diverse professionals to take action.
Conclusion
The DNP essentials are fundamental for future professionals to receive sufficient skills and knowledge to operate in diverse conditions and advocate for quality improvement. The competencies such as organizational leadership and inter-professional collaboration enable the students to learn the communication, execution, and project management capabilities to enhance their performance in getting better patient outcomes. In psychiatry, DNPs are required to develop and execute different and complicated strategies to work with clients, colleagues, and subordinates; thus, the essentials are applicable in their daily practice.
References
Chavez, F., Kelly, T., Kunisch, J. R., & Kurth, A. (2019). Systems leadership doctor of nursing practice: global relevance.International Nursing Review, 66(4), 482-489. Web.
DNP Nursing Curriculum Planning Solutions. (n. d.). The essentials of the DNP program. Web.
Giardino, E. R., & Hickey, J. V. (2020). Doctor of nursing practice students’ perceptions of professional change through the DNP program. Journal of Professional Nursing, 36(6), 595-603. Web.
Kilbourne, A. M., Beck, K., Spaeth‐Rublee, B., Ramanuj, P., O’Brien, R. W., Tomoyasu, N., & Pincus, H. A. (2018). Measuring and improving the quality of mental health care: A global perspective.World Psychiatry, 17(1), 30-38. Web.
McGuinness, T. M., Shirey, M. R., Cleveland, C., Richardson, J., Campbell, R., & Harper, D. C. (2020). An innovative approach for graduate education for psychiatric nurse practitioners.Journal of Professional Nursing, 36(6), 526-530. Web.