Greetings!
Ahhh…. I am savoring this moment having to write and reflect about something else other than coursework. It gives me a fresh perspective about learning and about life; something that’s hard to do when I am scrambling to get assignments done and submitted on time at 8am every Thursday and 8am every Monday.
This is the last week of the first course in the DNP program. I just can’t believe how time flew. It’s like running a race where you don’t care about anything else except to cross the finish line. And I’m almost about to cross that line! But I can’t be too relaxed. After NR701, which is the Theoretical Application for DNP comes NR702, Applied Statistics(!). Hey, didn’t they know we are nurses and not mathematicians? I remember Statistics in college. I don’t know how I passed that course. I can’t even remember a thing from that class. Well, I have no choice at this point. As a future DNP, research will be a part of what I will do, so I just have to get through another math course and try to take in as much as my dehydrated brain could take.
But I love NR701. It has really broadened my perspectives about nursing theories and about how nursing knowledge evolved. One can never quite appreciate the beauty of something or someone until one gets to know this something or that someone. True love comes after knowing. The more I learn about the rich knowledge base of nursing, the deeper my love for nursing gets. Every course that I have taken not only made me a better nurse, but a more enriched human being
As a future DNP, I am called to theory-driven and evidence-based practice; concepts that I heard before, but never quite knew how to apply. Over the past few weeks, we have learned about emanicipatory knowing, nursing praxis, how to evaluate theories, how to go up and down the ladder of abstraction, middle range theories, why personal values are important for nurses, and so on. There’s always something new I learn every time.
For this week’s assignment, we were asked to formulate a process on how to implement theory-based practice based on the course readings we’ve had. It shouldn’t have taken me too long to do it, if I just had the right skills to make diagrams and flow charts. My text boxes kept flying and flipping into different places every time I made changes with my word document. My family didn’t know what was going on with me while I was working on this assignment. I kept yelling at the computer to stop doing what it was doing so that I could submit my already late assignment. After a whole day’s work, I was able to finish and post my work, hopefully in time for our group discussion. Working with computers was a skill I had to learn from scratch when I started on-line schooling. I never had computer classes while I was growing up.
After writing 4 contextual reflections for this week, I will be immersed in writing my final praxis scholarly paper, which is due next Friday (our last day for this class). I had to take a vacation from work just to be able to do this major paper. I just can’t wait to cross that finish line… But then again, there are more lines to cross. So I just have to keep focused, keep my calm, take some time to sleep, eat, play, and pray. But most of all, I have got to keep my seemingly demented and overly stimulated neurons hydrated for more months to come of critical thinking, reflection, and writing.
But please don’t be discouraged. All these sleepless grueling nights will make of you a better nurse and a more enriched person. It’s not really where you started or who you are that matters, but who you become along the journey of life. The DNP journey is a road less travelled, because it’s not an easy journey. Doctorate programs are rigorous and entail a lot of sacrifice. One of my sons even asked my why I had to go back to school and miss all the times we can lounge and watch TV, go out the house to bike, take a walk, and have fun. It’s not that I get completely deprived of enjoying life as I used to. Going for the DNP program is a response to a calling deep within to serve others. It’s not that I cannot serve without higher education. I am somehow accountable before God for all the knowledge and skills he has given me. Being able to use this for the service of others is my way of giving back to him. As Winston Churchill said, “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”
Regis University Doctor of Nursing Practice 