The year long journey: Transforming the BSN-DNP curriculum

Background

Revising a doctor of nursing practice (DNP) curriculum for family nurse practitioner and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner education with an eye on future changes in competencies required planning and consensus among taskforce members. Major priorities included: the need to embed competency- based education (CBE), the National Taskforce Criteria for Nurse Practitioner (6th ed.) education, and the Essentials: Core competencies for professional nursing education (American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Essentials, 2021).

Findings

Challenges began with faculty knowledge of CBE, NP faculty skills in curriculum building, buying in to the revised degree, and reviewing all current literature on the DNP NP knowledge, skills and attitudes needed for current practice. The year long journey yielded a comprehensive curriculum model to share as well as several lessons learned and recommendations for this journey.

Conclusion

The process resulted in a curriculum revision that thus far, is better suited to development of the “work-ready” graduate while still supporting individualized student needs in attending a doctoral-level program. Ongoing work is focused on specific “pillars” of program support including clinical preceptor placement and partnerships, preceptor resources, student retention resources, and exploration of competency-based tracking data management.

Considering the impact on faculty workload, program leadership should actively assess levels of curricular expertise of faculty involved to determine additional development or training needs for individual professional growth.