Dnp Experience In Nursing Practice

Introduction

I am interested in pursuing the DNP program because I believe it will give me autonomy in my practice and professional fulfillment that comes from achieving one’s set goals academically. I also currently believe an unprecedented need for professional psychiatry/mental health nurse practitioners exists in our society today. This essay will touch on three different experiences drawing from previous nursing coursework, experience as a practicing nurse and experiences that demonstrate my greatest strengths.

Experience from previous nursing coursework

Completing the capstone for my master’s degree program in leadership and management was an eye opener. Interning with a nurse manager at a local hospital and presenting my research in

It is evidence in personal survival stories where I had to turn foes into friends by just staying the course and not giving up. To be specific, one example came to mind about a 64-year-old patient who had been in a catatonic state for months before arrival in the unit. The patient required total assistance with daily living activities (bathing, eating, personal hygiene measures, mouth care etc.). She was a total care patient suffering from severe depression. To make matters worse, she was non-verbal during this time. She was deemed “difficult” and “heavy” by nursing staff. No one was eager to accept the responsibilities of being her nurse including myself initially, but for some reason I always ended up with same assignment that included this patient. Knowing that I could not reject my assignment, I decided to persevere over this difficult patient by doing my best each time I worked with her. Her refusal to get out of bed, take a shower or brush her teeth did not faze me. I was determined to carry out my duties regardless of how daunting they were. After long hospitalization and an enormous amount of Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), her depression started lifting and she became verbal and engaging again. What memorialized this patient and this experience in my psyche is how the patient reacted to what I did while performing my duties as a nurse. The first time I took care of

432). There are known risks (memory loss, confusion) associated with ECT. Studies have shown that there are no structural changes in the brain after a series of ECT. Criado and colleagues in their study on Logical Memory test concluded that ECT in combination with drug treatment “produces much greater improvement of the depressive symptoms than purely drug treatment” (Criado, Fernandez, & Ortiz, 2007, p. 48). Petrides and colleagues noted in their study a case of a 74-year old patient who went through over 400 procedures without any sign of cognitive deterioration (Petrides, Tobias, Kellner, & Rudorfer, 2011, p. 136). I propose studying this issue by looking at current research studies on effectiveness of ECT in comparison to other treatment modalities like pharmacotherapy and