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

[Andrea M Whitchurch]

I haven’t necessarily received negative comments, so much as a questioning of general confusion as to a DNP not being strictly a Nurse Practitioner. As soon as I say that I am enrolled in a DNP program, the assumption is that I and becoming a Nurse Practitioner. Of course, I go on to explain that the DNP is the degree and that there are 4 different roles associated with the degree. When I first told my brother, he assumed that it meant I was going to be a doctor-as in a physician. Hopefully, as more and more DNP’s graduate and enter the field, this confusion will be cleared up.