My journey from RN to CRNA

Ok

So now I have been out of school for 8 months and am really starting to think about this doctorate buisness. What to do? PhD, DNP, DNAP or EdD? These are the ones I have been considering..

I want to do something that will have some beneficial impact both clinically and for my professional future.. so I decided to break them all down here from my own perspective..

PhD. Well, this is truly a pure research doctorate. It will likely cost more and take longer than any of the others. Personally, I am not that excited about research as I see my future in education. There is more public acceptance (read:respect) for the PhD than any of the other options. This is also true of university tenure, currently only PhDs and EdDs get this option. All of these can be done online.

EdD. This is an education directed doctorate. It was introduced at harvard univ. as an equivalent to the PhD. Generally it is about the same amount of credits (sometimes less) than a PhD. You can get tenure with this degree and it would be specific to what i am interested in.

DNP. This is the defacto standard for all advanced nursing in the future. It is highly likely that tenure will be avaliable in CRNA schools that are apart of nursing depts at universities (about 50% of the current number) in the near future. The DNP takes into account your previous masters classes and is a clinical extension of it. So it is generally 30-50 credit hours which is about half of the PhD. Makes sense, since once can go into a PhD with a bachelors and no masters. This is attractive for a number of reasons, decrease time and cost commitment being the most relevant. The DNP is flexible in that you can tailor it toward your interests.

DNAP. This is the non-nursing CRNA program schools answer to the DNP/doctorate requirement. This is highly specific to anesthesia and can be tailored to education or practice management. What concerns me about this is that there are only 2 of them. The DNP has and will take off but the DNP may disappear and therefore be irrelevant. Also, DNAPs may not be eligible to get tenure in universities or potentially might not be accepted in nursing school located CRNA programs.


So when i look at the options and think about what I want out of this, the DNP certainly seems to be the best option all the way around. Since this degree does not add to my practice financially I really do have to take cost and time into account when choosing.

Now time to look up school options.