While every DNP student designs a scholarly practice project as the culmination of their learning, not everyone has a problem in mind that they’re seeking to solve. 

For those who need inspiration, there’s a list.

About a year ago, when two military DNP students were casting about for projects, associate professor Beth Quatrara (MSN ’97, DNP ’10) reached out to colleagues at UVA Health.

That, in turn, led to a one-on-one meeting with chief nursing officer Kathy Baker, who pointed Quatrara to the Emergency Department, where they needed an extra hand to assess their response protocols related to workplace violence.  

The two DNP students dug in, tackling the issue with evidence-based solutions from different angles that led to “tremendous improvements,” Quatrara said. “That was a success story.” 
 
That success not only established important School-health system connections, it birthed a master list: a tally of UVA Health priority area projects of unit and health-system-wide topics clinician-leaders were struggling with and that needed examination, assessment, analysis—and the touch of a DNP. The list’s been growing ever since.
 
For Quatrara, whose list now includes 10 UVA Health projects as well as projects from a half-dozen organizations beyond UVA, including the Virginia Center for Health Innovation, it’s a metaphor that drives home what DNPs add to healthcare systems and dialogues. 

“The reality is that this is the life of a DNP. Every day, DNPs walk into a space and get, ‘We’re having this problem, we’ve noticed this trend in patient outcomes, we see this trend in finances we need to address, or this policy change to which we need to respond.’ That’s the life of a practicing clinician.”

Associate professor Beth Quatrara, graduate program lead

“The reality is that this is the life of a DNP,” said Quatrara. “Every day, DNPs walk into a space and get, ‘We’re having this problem, we’ve noticed this trend in patient outcomes, we see this trend in finances we need to address, or this policy change to which we need to respond.’ That’s the life of a practicing clinician.” 
 
It also makes the point that the team’s the thing. 
 
“It allows students to address real-world issues and also embeds them immediately into a team,” she added. “There’s no project that’s ever done in a silo. From the get-go, clinicians are working in teams, every day, all the time. So, it’s also inherently reinforcing the importance of teamwork from day one.” 

 

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