Reply To: The Discouragement Received From Nurse Colleagues When Pursuing DNP

[Elizabeth Lopez]

Hello Avery,
I have been in many conversations where my coworkers’ have brought up the topic on future goals and I talk about my goal of pursuing a DNP degree. The responses are many times full of negativity. Because of the negative feedback I get from coworkers I have become a lot more hesitant to share my educational goals at work. Some of the responses have included commenting on how I will owe so much on loans and have a very difficult time finding employment despite completing a grad program. It is very disappointing to realize that within our own field of practice so many still lack insight on the purpose of a higher education. Most do not know the purpose of obtaining a DNP and how it leads to having the professional knowledge to take part in making changes to the healthcare system. There are many coworkers that talk about wanting change in the health care system, but they don’t realize that the change will only happen if we take the initial steps to be part of the change. Despite the negative responses from others, I take every opportunity to educate coworkers, family, and friends on the purpose of a DNP. I educate them that a nurse with a DNP purpose is to improve healthcare and be able to provide quality and evidenced based services to diverse populations and in turn improve patient outcomes and therefore be part of a change in healthcare. On a more positive note, I am pursuing the PMHDNP and I work with psychiatrist that always have words of encouragement and tell me that they believe NP are the future of healthcare. So, despite the many negative comments I hold on to the positive ones and will continue to move forward.