Doctor of Nursing Practice Student Rounds: Acclimating Novice Students

Background: Novice doctor of nursing practice (DNP) students often have difficulties with incorporating programmatic requirements, understanding principles of quality improvement, developing scholarship skills, and fostering engagement with student colleagues. Mentoring by experienced faculty can be effective in acclimating students and developing scholarly work. Objective: The authors of this manuscript describe how mentoring sessions, DNP Student Rounds, provide a unique student assimilation and engagement experience for first-semester DNP students. Methods: DNP Student Rounds is an innovative approach for mentoring new DNP students by providing four monthly 60-minute virtual sessions during the first semester as students engage in learning principles of the quality improvement process, network with fellow students, identify project topics, and develop project teams. Results: Student feedback is overall positive with increased engagement and faculty interaction throughout their first semester. Faculty are more confident that this process helps the students with their project development while enhancing scholarship skills. Conclusions: Providing routine mentoring opportunities during the first semester of the DNP Program can be an effective method of supporting student engagement and program success. Implications for Nursing: By improving the educational process for DNP students, graduates are more prepared to build teams, lead quality improvement efforts, and impact health outcomes in the healthcare setting.