About One DNP

I earned my "terminal practice" degree in nursing from the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center in a journey of excitement and challenge. It inspired me to advocate for an all encompassing clinical credential rather than continuing the hodgepodge of nonsensical initials. I hope these entries will provide entertainment and insight into the Doctor of Nursing Practice experience, which will soon be the entry standard for all advanced practice nurses.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Semester's End!

So here is the best part of each course from semester one - 4.0 GPA baby!!!:

Epidemiology
Other than having it over, the best part of this class was confirming my suspicion with absolute conviction that I am not suited for a career in public health.

Biostatistics
This class forced me to use Endnote, something I may have avoided because I had my own "system" before. Well, my system is nothing in comparison to this program which automatically searches and stores references for current and later use, formats your paper into whatever writing style you need, and uses a "cite-while-you-write" to save a bunch of time when pulling an all nighter to finish your paper. Not that I ever did that, of course!

Biological Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders
Finding out Stahl's
dimensional approach to diagnosis is very similar to the Chinese concept of Yi Bing Tong Zhi, Tong Bing Yi Zhi or Same Disease, Different Treatment. Different Disease, Same Treatment.
I know so much more than I did at the beginning of the course yet somehow feel dumber than I ever considered I could be - the brain is not for lightweights!

Interviewing and Counseling
Having one of my responses to a theoretical male patient with relationship control issues from the final posted anonymously in class as an exemplary reply to make in the real world - "
You mourn the past and feel hopeless about the future, and this stagnant cycle of thought makes it difficult for you to set goals and find enjoyment in your daily life.
" Pretty cool to impress not only my professors, but my peers!

Philosophy of Science
From my professor: "I enjoyed reading your paper...this was a great statement 'If the logical positivist is the individual brain, the Whitehead’s metaphysical philosophy is the collective mind'. You are a thinker!" - that was one of the best compliments of my life!

But can I top this semester? Stay tuned for part two of year one and find out!

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Mid-Year One Week: Day Three

Leadership & Health Policy
I admit it - I am bitter that I have to take this course. Again. I already took a DNP level health policy course in the fall that would not transfer because it was not "exactly" like the one at UT. I should not be surprised because nearly every university does this so they don't loose out on one dime of that beautiful cash American, but if I have to go over the health care bill in detail yet again, I am going to require Xanax. Stupid boutique classes. I cannot even rip off my own papers!

Memphis Highlights
Springhill Suites is a winner and I will certainly stay again even if I do not rate customer of the day. Breakfasts are great, the decor is modern and relaxing, there is excellent free wi-fi and printer access, plus they have a lovely little soiree on Wednesday nights with beer, wine, and appetizers.

Last Minute Transportation was once again a great transportation service with that personal touch. Unknown to me, the trolley decided not to run down Madison and they came through in a pinch when I had 8 minutes to get to class.

Felicia Suzanne was having a private party in the bar area so we wound up checking out Flight for some apps and drinks. As the name indicates, they specialize in pairing wine and food flights. The concept was pretty cool, but the execution was nothing to rave over. The sidecar was weak to say the least, and my dining partner was not impressed with the pomegranate martini. In fairness, we only had one of the flight appetizers, so I will probably give it another roll on the next visit.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Mid-Year One Week: Day Two

Individual and Family Counseling
Bleary-eyed and without decent coffee, we headed to class at 7:30 in the morning to listen to a fantastic lecture on the relationship between temperament and attachment. This is one of the only classes I would prefer in lecture format just because it is so interesting and interactive. Even at dawn.

Concept and Theory
Reaffirming why I love on-line delivery of material! The teacher is great, I want to take her out for a drink. Unfortunately, this is one of those classes where all of the disciplines are put together and you see the "nurse" personalities come out in the (very unnecessary if you would actually read the material, will probably have to ask again later, and should be emailed because they only apply to you) questions. "One more thing" is one of the most evil promises when you don't really mean it.

The class ended with a video of the Hallelujah Chorus in a food court for the purposes of illustrating how quickly awareness develops. Fine. But the oral and subsequent apology for showing a Christian-based example was totally unnecessary. Anyone who would have been offended by it would have been looking to be offended. If it was "Rock of Ages" or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir or the Gayatri Manta, I would not have expected an apology because I am not Jewish or Mormon or Hindu. Ahhh, the oversensitive times in which we live.

Philosophy of Science Wrap-Up Presentation
40 people. 4 hours. Not surprisingly, most of the majors fit their stereotypes. I do not want to bad-mouth any specialty, least of all my own, but lets just say the folks you would expect to like the black and white philosophies did a great job when they took the logical positivist views and the folks who you figure would like the amorphous topics did a better job supporting the process philosophy viewpoints. We were a group of talkers and while interesting, we also took 1 hour longer than the other half of the class.

Bad News/Good News
Elizabeth Edwards, who I found out just before my plane took off was stopping chemotherapy, lost her battle with cancer. On the flip side, the SpaceX Dragon went up and splashed down - time for the stars!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Mid-Year One Week: Day One

Arrival

Gloryosky - I made it to Memphis without getting bumped off my flight. I called Last Minute Transport, as usual and they got me to Springhill Suites in no time. When I walked in the door, Jency the receptionist greets me with a "you are our customer of the day!" This entitled me to a room upgrade to the tower and free goodies from the market store. A room with 2 beds was immediately available which was lucky in light o the minus-6 hours of sleep on board. A great beginning to the trip. Unfortunately, MATA stopped trolley service down Madison so I had to spend $12 on a 5 minute ride to campus.

Interviewing and Counseling Wrap-Up

Reality check time! The final we took a couple of weeks ago consisted of several clinical scenarios that we had to make a therapeutic response to. Several examples from different students were anonymously presented - some were amazing and others were hilariously untherapeutic. A few of the good ones sounded familiar, but I was so emotionally spaced out when I took it, that I had a panic moment in November and asked the instructor to re-open the exam because I forgot I had taken it!

The same mental-health consumer who was present during orientation week came back and discussed communication issues among different types of health care providers. Not surprisingly, psychiatrists rated low on the list because of the short time spent in relation to decisions to start major brain-chemistry-altering medications. Family pratice rated high because of their holistic approach (yeah!).

Assessment Strategies

We started with a Medatrax tutorial. In my FNP program we used a similar tracking system for clinical logs and these things pretty much all work the same. There will be a Droid app or this soon, thankfully! We talked a bit about expectations, for the upcoming class, but the class does not start until January so the bulk of the information will come through Blackboard.

Psychopharm Wrap-up

I am so glad to know I am not the only person who feels both smarter and dumber after taking this course! The same mental-health consumer from I&C came to class and we broke down her medications, past and present, as well as cases from some of the practices of other classmates. Great ending, and I am looking forward to getting to the "meat of practice" with the assessment course.

WTF Moment

Word is PTSD and Narcissistic Personality D/O may be out of the DSM-V when it comes out in 2013? 2015? THe reason for PTSD is easy. If you get rid of a disorder, there is nothing to pay for. "Shell shock" will probably come back into the vernacular, but I imagine they will shuffle many of the PTSD cases into TBI if you can demonstrate any sort of head trauma. Narcissistic PDO is a little more disturbing only because the reason it may be out it because narcissism is so pervasive in our society, it is considered normal. Wow.

Best Line of the Day

"Inhale? He still owes money!" (former limo driver John James on Governor Bill Clinton in his heyday)

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Memphis, Memphis Hear I Come!!!

Finals are taken, papers are turned in! All I have left is a 5 minute presentation on whether logical positivism or process philosophy is the better approach to studying sanity and the final edits to that paper and this semester is history.

And then on to the next semester the will start, oddly, concurrent to the conclusion of the current semester. So here is a sneak peak at what on-campus week looks like:

Tuesday:
8am direct flight on Delta which I cannot get a seat assignment for because the light is oversold. This is not a good omen.

8:30am I will make the flight, I will have a seat, I will get there in time to grab a ride over to the hotel in time to have a light lunch and trolley it over to the university.

1-3: Interviewing and counseling (final class)

4-5:30: Assessment strategies in mental health (first class)

5:30-8: Biological treatment of psychiatric disorders (final class)

8-?: I am getting a sidecar from the place down the street I went to last time. Yum.

Wednesday
7:30-9: Individual group and family therapy (first class)

9-12: Concept and theory analysis (first class)

1-5: PRESENTATION Philosophy of science (last class)

6-???: Party at the deans house!

Thursday
9-12 Leadership and Health policy (first class . . . again. I already took this stupid course at Bellarmine but they would not let me get out of it because "they did not teach it exactly like we do." PHFTTTTTTTTT)

1-4 Written scholarly activities workshop

And then I leave for Italy!