Reply To: Ideas of DNP Projects

[Rosemary Benavides]

I am very interested in this topic as well. As a DNP graduate student myself, I have also recently been thinking about my final DNP project and I believe that it’s never too early to start brainstorming on ideas. The major components of the final DNP project should consist of planning, implementation, and evaluation. Additionally, every institution has specific requirements for the final DNP project, which may also affect the approach that you take on your final project. As mentioned in the previous post, the topic that you choose to focus on depends on your specialty. In other words, if your specialty is in psychiatric mental health, then focus on current mental health related issues, maybe related to medication compliance, or improving patient safety. If your in a CRNA program, maybe focus on problems related to sedation and specific comorbidities. Also, you can ask yourself a few questions in order to start brainstorming on topics, such as: what issues do you find concerning in your workplace? Or, what changes need to be made in order to improve the nursing profession/your specialty? Some of the areas that I believe necessitate change, or improvements include: unsafe nurse to patient ratios, high nurse turnover, nurse burnout, being short staffed, and decreasing hospital readmissions. I personally believe that focusing on a topic that you are passionate about will yield rewarding research and results for your project.