ANCC Statement on DNP Certification

Opps! tlking to myself again

I feel both our schools and ANA have failed us. I wish they would ask full-time practicing NP's what they need before planning out a what they think a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree should be, maybe some have. But I would have know way of telling a good school from one not so good. I can look at what they say they teach but will they follow through. My Master's Program did not look at my clinic performance. I could be a horrible clinician, but buddies with my preceptor and pass.

I would be in favor of an internship for NP's.

I agree that I don't see the ANA or my state chaper, doing much for NP's. I am a member of AANP and a local chapter. Unfortunately, I took the ANCC test, and hope I never have to do that again. May be, if there was a way to get our certification recoggnized, it would be a great idea to have only one certification body.

Even as an RN, I never saw much done by the ANA in my state.

However, we are all nurses. Just because I am now an NP does not mean I am not a nurse. It is the basis of my practice. I have been one so long, I could  not not think like a nurse.

I just wish, we could work together.

Nursing needs more cohesiveness and less splintering. How to get the profession as a whole together boggles my mind.

Basically, our schools need to reform. They need to get it together and teach, new nurses,all nurses that we need to govern and work together, and educate our Legislators   and colleagues as to what nurses do.

This is off topic a bit, but is an important issue in NP certification. NP's are currently certified by muliple different agencies with many different standards. This is one of the main reasons we  have so much alphabet soup behind our names. It's also one of the reasons the public has no idea who we are when they see our titles. The NP profession has less uniformity in our education, certification, and titles than any other healthcare profession! This needs to be rectified in order to build a strong identity with the public and other providers.

I believe, one of the first steps in accomplishing this goal is for NP's to stop using the ANCC certification program. The ANCC is not our best advocates, they are too diverse and are more of a RN centered orginization. I highly encourage NP's to use the AANP for NP certification. I know currently they don't have all NP specializations, but as the DNP degree moves forward I believe the profession needs to unite behind one certification agency.

The AANP does more for our profession and represents us far better than the ANCC. This could be the first step in moving towards our own uniformed identity that would solve many problems and greatly benefit our profession.