Reply To: Potential Crisis in Nurse Practitioner Preparation in the United States

[Abigale Schucker]

Hello,
Thank you for posting this article. I think Dr. Mundinger and Dr. Carter bring up a valid point about DNP preparation. If I understand this correctly, their claim through their research is that more DNP programs are geared to administration or leadership positions versus practice programs preparing primary care DNPs. Given the climate of our healthcare and the need for primary care providers to serve communities, not having enough is a fear. As someone going into AGPC, I am worried about having an increased patient load, if there is not an adequate amount of providers. As a side note, I worry about how my current training; Will I be able to perform as a PCP adequately? (That is another topic for another time). However, the limitation of this article gives me pause. Because the type of educational program was tracked over the admission or graduation rate, it is hard to say with accuracy if there will be a fair number of “practice” DNPs produced based on the research presented. I would want to know about the number of admissions into practice (clinical) DNP programs, and the success rate with both graduation and boards.