After spending a year as a labor and delivery and postpartum nurse at Emory University Hospital, Alyssa Craig knew she wanted to become a certified midwife.
“I was happy with my undergrad degree and was going to stick with that. But as I began to practice in the real world, I found that I loved the process of normal labor and that I wanted to take a larger role in managing my patients, which required me to go back to school and get a graduate degree,” says Craig, a master’s in nursing student in her final year at George Washington University in the District of Columbia.
Craig says the role of a certified nurse-midwife, or CNM, appeals to her more than a nursing vocation at the bachelor’s level since it will allow her to make diagnoses and prescribe medication.
“While bedside nurses have a role in patient education, they’re not the ones managing patients at the provider level,” the 25-year-old says.
There have always been certain requirements for becoming a CNM, like taking a national certification exam, but the field didn’t mandate a master’s in nursing, or MSN, for the specialty until 2010. In fact, there’s a general trend within nursing to increase education levels across the board among both entry-level nurses and advanced practice nurses. Nursing roles that are advanced practice — often referred to as APRN specialties — include nurse practitioner, clinical nurse, certified nurse-midwife and certified nurse anesthetist.
In fact, many high-paying health care occupations, such as physical therapists and audiologists, which previously required a two-year graduate degree, now require a doctorate.
Although midwifery doesn’t require a doctorate, nursing education experts say it may in the future. “There are some people who say in order to move the nursing profession forward, then all advanced practice nurses should be moving toward the DNP model as an endgame the same way that physical therapists do,” Craig says.
[Learn how a master’s degree can give nurses a salary and career boost.]
Nursing school academics say one report from nearly 10 years ago has led the way in nursing education: ” The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health,” published in 2010 by the Institute of Medicine, which is now the National Academy of Medicine.
“That report has probably helped guide the nurse vocation more than anything,” says Pamela Jeffries, dean and professor at the GW School of Nursing, who says the report is widely accepted since it’s based on evidence-based research.
The IOM report recommends nearly all entry-level nurses — 80 percent — hold a bachelor’s degree by 2020 and that the number of doctorate nurses double. Prior to the report, nursing academics called for the level of education among nursing specialists to be a doctorate, known as the DNP.
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“In 2004, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing passed a position paper that all advanced practice registered nurse vocations should move toward or evolve toward adopting the nursing practice degree — that’s a professional doctorate — similar to the MD that a physician gets or the PharmD that a pharmacist has to have,” says Joan Stanley, chief academic officer of education policy at AACN, an organization that advocates standards for baccalaureate and graduate nursing education.
Jeffries says in response to evolving guidelines that more nursing schools are opening DNP programs.
The number of DNP programs has more than tripled over the last 10 years, a ccording to the AACN. Today there are more than 300 DNP programs in the U.S., with an additional 124 DNP programs in the planning stages. Some of these programs are structured as post-baccalaureate — educating BSN degree holders for a DNP — and others are post-master’s programs, which provide a path for MSN practitioners to earn their doctorate.
The School of Nursing and Health Studies at Georgetown University, for instance, launched its first DNP program in 2015. This program is post-master’s, but the school also plans to launch a post-baccalaureate DNP course in the near future, according to Deb Dole, associate professor and vice chair of the department of advanced nursing practice at GU.
“If you’re student coming in and trying to determine what is your end goal, the terminal degree of the DNP is not mandated — it’s recommended, but it’s not mandated yet,” Dole says.
Experts say the increased responsibilities of advanced practice nurses to bridge gaps as primary providers due to doctor shortages has partly led to the push toward the DNP.
[Learn how to get into a top online graduate nursing program.]
Stanley says the transition among advanced practice nursing specialties to the DNP is already underway. “All certified anesthetists, nurse practitioners and nurse specialist organizations within those three roles have put out statements and mandated that programs transition,” she explains.
But the only one among those fields to require the DNP by a set date, Stanley says, is the certified registered nurse anesthetist, known as CRNA. These nurses must hold a DNP by 2025.
When deciding between an MSN and a DNP, Stanley encourages prospective students to consider a DNP program if it’s available : “Many of the programs are transitioning. Some of the schools have created a DNP program, and they are keeping their MSN program while this transition occurs.”
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More Nursing Disciplines Require a Master’s or Doctoral Degree originally appeared on usnews.com
