Membership in Professional Organizations Essay.

Week 6: The DNP Scholarly Project and PhD Dissertation
Earlier in this course, you examined the end-of-program requirements for either the DNP or the PhD.Membership in Professional Organizations Essay.
The DNP is the highest practice-oriented degree available. As such, it requires a final project that reflects depth and applicability to clinical practice. Leadership, evidence-based practice, and adept collaboration distinguish the DNP degree, and these same characteristics influence the DNP Scholarly Project that candidates complete by the end of the doctoral program.Membership in Professional Organizations Essay.

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The PhD is a highly interdisciplinary research degree. PhD candidates engage in original research and disseminate their results to advance the body of knowledge in nursing. Writing the dissertation is a comprehensive process that is contingent upon the identification of a viable research problem.
This week, you begin the extensive process of developing a DNP Scholarly Project by exploring problems in your own practice environment, or developing a PhD Dissertation by identifying problems that you may wish to research. In addition, you consider which professional organization could best support your growth as a scholar-practitioner and your doctoral project.Membership in Professional Organizations Essay.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
Outline plans for participation in a professional nursing organization that supports a DNP scholarly project or PhD research topic

Major Assignment: Membership in Professional Organizations
At various points in your career as a nurse, you have most likely observed significant problems in your practice environment(s). Take a few minutes to think about the problems you have noticed.
Through the DNP degree, candidates develop the tools needed to address practice-related concerns through evidence-based solutions. In this week’s media presentation, Dr. Beechinor and Dr. Stefan discuss this process while sharing their own DNP projects and the needs these projects addressed.Membership in Professional Organizations Essay. Candidates in the PhD program conduct research involving a problem related to practice or another area of professional interest and, as such, often work with DNP-prepared nurses.
To support your doctoral project and growth as a scholar-practitioner, you are required to join a professional nursing organization. Membership in a professional organization offers numerous benefits, including educational endeavors, advocacy opportunities, up-to-date information of interest to the profession, and much more. Some organizations offer scholarships, continuing education units, and a means for disseminating current research findings. In addition, joining a professional organization can help you to become involved in decision making at the organizational level and provide a venue for engaging in social change efforts that benefit your community.Membership in Professional Organizations Essay.
This week’s Assignment serves as your Major Assessment for this course. You identify a DNP project or research topic and select an organization that will facilitate or be useful to you as you engage in your doctoral project (DNP Scholarly project or dissertation research). In addition, the professional nursing organization should be relevant for your current or anticipated professional practice. You then outline plans for participation in the organization and articulate how this could help you meet your professional goals and support your project development.
To prepare:Membership in Professional Organizations Essay.
DNP students:
Reflect on the DNP projects Dr. Beechinor and Dr. Stefan discussed in this week’s media (see attachment) presentation, as well as the DNP Scholarly Project specifications outlined in the AACN Essentials. Also, review the end-of-program requirements you explored for the

Consider your professional experiences in light of new information you may have encountered in this course. With this in mind, identify a need or change related to a practice environment. Please note that the objective of this activity is to increase your awareness of potential DNP projects; you are not committing to a project idea at this time.
Consider which professional nursing organization you would like to join and how they organization relate’s to your identified practice need or change or research problem. How might participating in this group support the development of your DNP Scholarly Project?
There are numerous types of organizations that qualify as professional nursing organizations, including:Membership in Professional Organizations Essay.
An organization that focuses on a specific area of clinical practice (e.g., Association of Operating Room Nursing [AORN], American Holistic Nurses Association [AHNA])
A state or national nursing organization (e.g., American Nurses Association [ANA] ( I am a member of ANA)
An area of scholarly emphasis (e.g., American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN] or National League for Nursing [NLN])
An organization that emphasizes specific groups of nurses (e.g., American Assembly for Men in Nursing [AAMN] or National Association of Hispanic Nurses [NAHN])
After evaluating these organizations in light of your most salient professional concerns, goals, and doctoral project select one organization to join. Complete the steps necessary for joining this professional organization.Membership in Professional Organizations Essay.
Note: If you are already a member of a professional nursing organization, you are not required to join an additional organization; however, you need to submit documentation of your membership and complete the Assignment below. (I am a member of ANA)

To complete:
Write a 1-page paper describing a need or change related to a practice environment or a problem that is suitable for research. Include your rationale for why this situation or topic warrants attention.
Outline your plans for participation in the professional nursing organization, and describe how this will help you to meet your professional goals. Also, consider how the organization may correlate with or support the development of your DNP Scholarly Project or PhD Dissertation in the future.Membership in Professional Organizations Essay.
Include documentation of your membership at the end of your Major Assessment as an Appendix. (You may copy and paste the e-mail verification of your membership, or copy your membership receipt and paste it into your Word doc.) Be sure to observe proper APA style for including appendices.Membership in Professional Organizations Essay.

Required Readings
Zaccagnini, M. E., & White, K. W. (2017). The doctor of nursing practice essentials: A new model for advanced practice nursing (3rd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett.
Chapter 10, “A Template for the DNP Scholarly Project”
This chapter discusses the AACN proposals for the DNP project. The project should address practice-based problems and propose evidence-based solutions. The DNP project is further defined with a comparison to the PhD thesis. The authors provide nine steps that should be incorporated into the structure of a DNP Scholarly Project.Membership in Professional Organizations Essay.

American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). (2006). The essentials of doctoral education for advanced nursing practice. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.aacnnursing.org/DNP/DNP-Essentials
“Final DNP Project” (p. 20) In this reading, the AACN provides examples of suitable DNP projects.

Walden College of Nursing. (2011). Doctor of nursing practice program manual. Minneapolis, MN: Author. Retrieved from http://ecampus.waldenu.edu/c/Student_Faculty/StudentFaculty_18625.htm
To access, click link and scroll down to Program Documents
The Walden College of Nursing program manual provides valuable information that guides you through your program.
Forsyth, D. M., Wright, T. L., Scherb, C. A., & Gaspar, P. M. (2010). Disseminating evidence-based practice projects: poster design and evaluation. Clinical Scholars Review, 3(1), 14-21.
In the health care field, DNP projects are not as available publicly as more traditional research-based thesis projects. The authors of this article propose strategies for resolving this gap in access to the literature.
Required Media
Laureate Education (Producer). (2011c). The DNP project [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu In this media presentation, Dr. Linda Beechinor and Dr. Susan Stefan describe their DNP projects, including the applicability of these projects to the practice environment.( see attachment)Membership in Professional Organizations Essay.

Membership in Professional Organizations

A problem that is suitable for research and why the topic warrants attention

All DNP students must complete a final DNP project for them to graduate. A DNP project is a scholarly project that demonstrates the synthesis of course content, entailing theory, research, and in some instances, principles of implementation science. According to Chism (2017), the focus of the DNP project will partly depend on the entry point of the candidate into the doctoral program of study. Students who already have a master’s degree why are already practicing g as APRNs might choose to focus on a policy or practice issue related to their specialty area.Membership in Professional Organizations Essay.

A problem that suitable for research is spiritual beliefs on causes of mental health leading to medication non-adherence.  This topic warrants attention because although lack of non-adherence to medication might be observed in basically all chronic illnesses, it is particularly challenging in mental conditions. Mental illnesses are treated both mentally and physically (using medications).  Appropriate use of medications plays a very vital role in the control of mental illnesses and is the key to the successful treatment of mental disorders. Medication adherence is the observance of all instructions that the therapist gives to the patient, entailing the methods of administration and types of medication.  Non-adherence to medication is a key factor in the rehospitalization of psychiatric patients.  According to Zagozdzon and Wrotkowska (2017), spiritual beliefs might greatly influence adherence to medication in mental illness. If a mental condition is believed to be caused by or might be connected with spiritual problems, pharmacotherapy might be insufficient.  Spiritual beliefs about mental illness entail beliefs that mental illness occurs due to sinful behaviors and thus has spiritually oriented cause or/and treatments.  Some patients might believe that seeking medical advice or taking medication is a reflection that they do not have faith in the ability of God to heal the disease in the absence of medical intervention.Membership in Professional Organizations Essay.

Plans for participation in the professional nursing organization and how it will help you to meet your professional goals

As a member of the American Nurses Association (ANA), I plan to participate in the professional organization by attending educational sessions,  meetings, and conferences organized by the ANA and serving on a committee or as a delegate to large meetings.  According to Finkelman (2017), membership in a professional organization and being active in the activities of the organization is a professional responsibility. Active participation in ANA’s activities will assist me to meet my professional goals by giving me a variety of opportunities for professional development. Finkelman (2017) indicates that nurses who hold offices, attend meetings, serve on committees or act as representatives to large meetings reap more benefits from membership than those who fail to participate in the professional organization’s activities. Submitting a poster at a meeting or abstracts for presentation is an exceptional experience for nurses and provides more opportunities for networking with peers who might offer mentoring and resources for professional development.Membership in Professional Organizations Essay.

How the professional organization might support the development of my DNP scholarly project in the future

ANA might support the development of my DNP scholarly project in the future by offering me authorship opportunities. According to Roux and Halstead (2017), nursing organizations might offer numerous resources to their entailing professional journals. Professional journals offer opportunities for nurses to author manuscripts. American Nurse is the official journal of the ANA. Authors who want their manuscripts to be published in American Nurse Journal submit their manuscripts to editors for reviewing and publication in the journal.  Also, members are usually requested to author position statements, monographs, and textbooks.  Educational resources that a nursing organization creates are mostly written by a membership group, and this presents an opportunity for new authors to get mentorship in publishing. Membership in Professional Organizations Essay.