Overview of DNP
Project and Residency
Robin Bissinger, PhD, APRN, NNP-BC, FAAN
Associate Dean of Academics
Medical University of South Carolina
College of Nursing
DNP Program
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Full or Part time plan of study
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Signed and agreed to by the student
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If you change from FT/PT or PT/FT we have to revise and sign a new plan
of study
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This can delay graduation in some cases
Your program plan is used to register for you for your courses each
semester
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Any questions related to your program come to Arly Douglass GiGi Smith.
Dr. Smith is the Director of the program and your program advisor.
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Course issues are addressed first with faculty and if you cannot resolve the
issue contact Dr. Smith.
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Check your MUSC email daily for information
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Meet all mandatory's such as BCLS and Catts or you will be out of your
courses
Practice Improvement
Project
 Use of research knowledge and methods to create, implement
and evaluate practice interventions, health delivery systems,
and clinical teaching.
 Commitment to translate research into practice in order to
improve health care outcomes
 Project in an area of clinical practice, expertise or interest
 A practice change initiative
 Program implementation and evaluation
 Practice model implementation and evaluation
 Health policy implementation
 Quality improvement project
Guidelines
 Project is related to advanced practice in the nursing specialty and
benefits a group, population or community rather than an individual
 May be done in partnership with an agency or group but student
must have the leadership role or can be solo
 Students work with a clinical expert or mentor and the Residency
Faculty
 Must go through IRB at MUSC and your center
 Ask yourself “What population or outcome will you impact with
this change” and how will you know….what data will you look at
pre and post change.
PIP Framework
 Focus-PDSA approach
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F: Find a process to improve
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Organize an effort to work on improvement
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What is the current state of the science related to the process or
practice
Understand process variation and performance capabilities
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Who will be involved and what support do you need
Clarify the current knowledge of the process
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What do you plan to change
Outline specifically how the current process works
Select changes aimed at performance or process improvement
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Choose the intervention or interventions
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What changes are you going to make
PIP Framework
 Plan the change. Analyze and predict the results
 How do you plan to measure the effect of the change
 Do it
 Execute the plan taking small steps in controlled
circumstances
 Study it
 Check or study the results
 Act: Take action
 How do you sustain the gain
 If no working what is the next step (Continue PDSA)
Residency
 Key component of the DNP Program
 Combines clinical practice experiences with scholarly activities (400
total hours for a total of 1000 hours)
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Some students will need more hours to reach the 1000 based on
their MSN program
 Two components
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Comprehensive clinical experience
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300 Precepted Hours
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Broadens exposure in your APN specialty
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Does not provide a new specialty
Practice Inquiry Project
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100 hours
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Cannot begin this project until you are in residency
Residency
 Individually designed by each student
 Set your own clinical goals
 Approved by Residency Coordinator
 Demonstration of increasingly complex and proficient
practice
 Clinical hours
 Procedural
Residency
 Refined communication, reflection and scholarly skills
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MyFolio
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Reflective Journaling
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Scholarly Activities
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Competencies
 Patient care expertise with emphasis on independent and
inter-professional clinical practice
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Typhon clinical logs for patient clinical
Clinical and Preceptor contracts
 Health Policy and Health Care delivery Projects
Clinical Residency
 Clinical Site
 Clinical Site Approval form
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Faxed to Graduate Program Coordinator (Douglass)
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Goes to Residency Coordinator for Approval
 Once site approved: Affiliation Agreement Request Form
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Faxed to Graduate Program Coordinator
 Must have Legal facility agreement to start residency work
 Clinical Preceptor
 With expertise in clinical practice and Nationally certified
 Complete clinical preceptor form, attach CV, copy of
license and certification
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Faxed to Graduate Program Coordinator: Douglass
Residency Contract
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Purpose of residency is to increase exposure to doctoral level clinical
practice
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DNP Clinical Residency Contract
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Specific objectives, requirements and evaluation criteria
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Specified number of hours for each contract
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Completion of contract to successfully meet residency requirement
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Final decision by residency course coordinator
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Contract must be developed by the student and agreed on by clinical
preceptor and residency course coordinator
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Signed by the student, clinical preceptor and residency course coordinator.
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Placed in academic record
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Must demonstrate completion of contract and upload to my-folio unless in
Typhon
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Contracts for Spring residency already due
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Contracts can take the entire semester so get started
Reflective Journal
 Integration of clinical leadership and inquiry into previous or
current practice
 Utilize clinical cases from your experience or practice
 Integration of ethics, genetics, heath policy, collaboration and
information technology, health disparity and other areas of
doctoral level practice
 This is a tangible, deliverable academic product
 Example
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Identify a potential genetic risk in a population of patients you
have cared for and discuss a diagnosis of a genetic condition
and an intervention you made for an individual in your
practice. Discuss the implications for the families. What did
you learn from the experience? Would you do anything
different? Provide a critical analysis and discussion.
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Done in MyFolio under Reflective Journaling
Scholarly Activities
 Academic and Scholarly activities
 Conferences, seminars, journal club, grand rounds,
morbidity and mortality, patient conferences, quality and
safety, practice-based lectures, interdisciplinary
committees, quality improvement committees, policy or
advocacy events
 Each student is expected to document a minimum of 10
activities during the program. Can be done at any time in
the program.
 On My-Folio: under Residency you will find this section
Residency Competencies
 Domains and Competencies for DNP education and APRN practice
must be met within the program.
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These are the skills, knowledge and attitudes required for clinical
practice (referred to as competencies)
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Some are met in course work
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Others are met by students with documentation provided by you in
MyFolio
 Each Domain and competency is outlined in MyFolio
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Required to review competencies and complete any tasks
Example
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Competency 22: Counsels the patient on the use of
complementary/alternative therapies (see task)
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In one paragraph describe how you counseled a patient on the use of
complementary therapies.
Residency Evaluation
 Evaluation of Clinical site
 Evaluation of Clinical Preceptors
 Evaluation of Residency Course
 Evaluation of Residency Course Coordinator
 Preceptor evaluation of you
 Long and short forms
 Long forms are required for clinical contracts over 50
hours
Residency I
 Only 1 credit hour
 Students asking to get started sooner
 Obtain site and preceptor contracts now
 Develop a goal for first residency contract to grow in
your APRN role
Residency II
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Project cannot be started until you have IRB approval and you must be in your
residency course
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Project
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Upload 5 page edited paper with changes in my-folio
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Choose your journal
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Write first section of your paper up to results/conclusion
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Stay on time-line and redo it if delay in IRB
Complete half of your clinical hours
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Share this with your residency faculty
Insure clinical contracts are completed, hours verified and upload
Complete half of your scholarly activities, reflective journaling and
competencies
Residency III
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Project
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Write final paper, obtain faculty approval and send to journal
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Upload journal has received it
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Upload paper that was sent for publication
Develop poster and seek approval prior to presentation
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Meet with statistician early if needed
Complete remaining clinical hours
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Insure clinical contracts are completed
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Complete remaining scholarly activities, reflective journaling and competencies
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If any delays discuss need for another residency
Program Milestones
 Completion of Project
 Completion of MyFolio: All components
 Residency: Completion of all 400 hours
Final Project Work
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Final proposal is completed in Practice Inquiry and IRB
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First draft of paper that outlines project is reviewed by faculty and uploaded after all
changes are made
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Final paper and poster are due in your last residency (NRDNP 890)
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Two weeks prior to the poster presentation
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All sections of MyFolio must be complete
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Publication must be approved and all revisions made
Poster presentation
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Electronic publication must be uploaded with proof of submission to journal
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Poster is presented with a 10 minute oral-summary
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Committee signs off on your work with recommendation for the DNP degree
Contact us
 Stay in touch
 Send emails with questions and concerns
 Consider being on the Graduate Program Committee and EPEC
committee to represent your group
 If you are struggling call early so we can help
 Understand one thing:
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“Our Goal is that everyone will graduate, do well and represent the
CON as a strong APRN leader”
 Follow up with us after graduation: Alumni survey, employer survey
and graduation survey
QUESTIONS?