When you are about to embark on a new direction within your chosen field of nursing, you may not have considered all the benefits of earning that new degree. Once you have that nurse practitioner doctorate degree in hand, you can reach heights you may never have envisioned because new doors are opening all the time.
As a student of online doctoral nursing programs, such as the one from Bradley University, you will begin to learn about how technology and a shortage of qualified doctors have had a negative impact on healthcare. From there, you can see which direction your new degree will take you in due to the benefits of a DNP degree (Doctor of Nurse Practice). Here are just three of those benefits.
1. Seeing Patients through the Eyes of a Doctor
One of the hardest things for most nurses to do is see a patient through the eyes of a doctor. While you are working with that patient on a more personal level of care compared to a doctor, you see things which need to be accomplished and often wonder why a difficult doctor can’t see that. You might be surprised to learn when working with doctors that they often understand all too well what patients need, but are bound by restrictive codes in best practices, as established by law and institutional guidelines.
Many times, a doctor agrees with your assessment but is unable to institute the changes in treatment you would like to see prescribed because of such things as cost and technical regulations you haven’t been privy to as a nurse. Once that patient is in your care and it is you calling the shots, you’ll have a better appreciation for the role doctors are forced to play in a system that often fails its patients. Armed with this ammunition, you can begin working towards better legislation at government level and locally within your own hospital if that is where you choose to do.
2. Having a Role in Developing New Ways of Streamlining Patient Care
As a natural result of seeing patients from a different perspective, and with an advanced degree in hand, you can now work in advisory positions which were once unavailable to you. Now you can have an active role in finding new ways of streamlining patient care so that the imbalance between the number of doctors and the growing number of patients is leveled out to some degree. From technology to best practices, as a DNP, your voice will be heard.
3. Unlimited Earning Potential
The third thing you may never have thought of is the fact that with a high-level degree, a doctorate, so many doors are open to you than ever before. You can head research at major institutions or you could open your own private practice. If you choose your DNP path wisely, you can be your own boss, set your own hours, and reach as far up the corporate ladder as you’d like. No one can set limitations on the amount of salary you make if you are in your own practice and you can see as many or as few patients as you want to see.
You may have briefly considered the benefit of making a higher wage or going into practice for yourself, with a doctor’s oversight that is, but the business itself will be yours. The sky is the limit and you can take that doctorate and make some very real and much-needed changes. Make a difference, make more money and do something personally rewarding. Explore the benefits of getting that DNP degree and let life take you to levels you’d only imagined.
