BSN to DNP: Keeping up with the times

Pictured above: Linda Hill, coordinator for Nurse Anesthetists, and Amber Roaché, coordinator of the Nurse Practitioner program

by Shawn Ryan

To comply with a shift in the profession, the Master of Science in Nursing Practice is being eliminated in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga School of Nursing.

Starting in January 2022, students who wish to become an advanced practice registered nurse must enroll in the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program to pursue a graduate degree in nurse anesthesia, adult gerontology acute care nurse practitioner or family nurse practitioner.

Students with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) will directly enter the DNP program for those three concentrations.

Students currently pursuing a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) will be able to finish the program and earn their degree. The final class of those students will graduate in 2023.

The decision to eliminate master's level programs is happening in nursing schools nationwide. Currently, nine universities in Tennessee offer MSN to DNP degrees and 11 have BSN to DNP programs.

"For probably the last 10 years, there has been a push to make the doctorate as entry-level for advanced practice roles. This has really picked up steam in the last five years," says Amber Roaché, coordinator of the Nurse Practitioner program in the School of Nursing. "So it was kind of looking at the big picture and saying, 'OK, if these others are saying the doctorate should be entry-level, then we need to move there as well.'"

Making the Doctor of Nursing Practice the entry-level program meets new accreditation requirements from the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties as well as the requirements of Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs.

The change covers all advanced practice concentrations in the Nurse Practitioner program at UTC.

"Nurses who will graduate from our DNP will still sit for their certification exam and be certified registered nurse anesthetists or CRNAs," says Linda Hill, coordinator for Nurse Anesthetists. "They will still qualify to get their advanced practice nursing license from state boards of nursing, whether it's Tennessee, Mississippi or wherever they go practice. And they will still do exactly the same sorts of things that nurse anesthetists do in the operating rooms."

Beyond medical doctors, other health professions such as pharmacology, occupational therapy and physical therapy, podiatrists and optometrists are steering toward doctoral degrees that focus on practice rather than the heavy research focus of a Ph.D.

Both Roaché and Hill say the move is a positive change. Practice combined with research can create valuable results, Roaché points out.

"It's actually taking it to that next level and saying, 'This is an issue I see in my clinical practice,' whatever that might be. Maybe it's patients aren't being called back in an appropriate time or aren't receiving their lab work in an inappropriate amount of time. Or maybe the providers aren't documenting something they need to be documenting in the electronic medical record.

"If you see it in your practice, you run it as a pilot and say, 'OK, this is what we've done in our practice, and this is what has worked.' Then you take it to other practices and ask, 'Are you having the same issue? Here's what we saw. Here's what we've done to fix it. Are you interested in this?'"

Hill adds that, along with preparing students even more thoroughly to step seamlessly from the university into their medical careers, the Doctor of Nursing Practice program has the added benefit of teaching students to be leaders.

"It's important that they are educated with a strong focus on leadership and leadership in health care and health policy and health care economics and ethics and diversity," Hill says. "Because we will—and we do—affect health care change.

"This brings us with more power, so to speak, to the table when we are talking about legislative issues, when we're talking about health policy change issues."