The Competency Matrix allows assessing the activities and assignments completed during the DNP course and determining which areas, for instance, skills or knowledge of the topic, should be improved. In general, the program provided an excellent opportunity for advancing personal leadership qualities and understanding the implications of science-based theories, understanding of system-wide perspective in regards to healthcare establishments, comprehension of various environmental, epidemiological, or biostatistical data, quality improvement approaches, and ability to develop strategies for evaluating outcomes. This paper will review competency blank spaces and will offer an action plan that can be used to address the issue.
Competency blank spaces that were left unmet during the programmatic or course-based assignments include a focus on prevention to promote population health. An action plan that can be used to strengthen the understanding of this topic is the development of an evidence-based strategy that incorporates best practices for addressing a population health threat in a specific area. Demonstrating leadership when evaluating and locating a resolution to policy, ethical, and legal issues lacked scholarly activities that could help develop this competency.
Next, advocating for social justice, equity, and ethical policies within healthcare should be addressed. It is due to the fact that nurses have to advance the nursing profession through research and advocacy for change in policies and practices (“What is a Ph.D. nurse,” n.d.). Analyzing data that can help provide an understanding of the individual, aggregate, and population health can be improved by practicing assignments that involve analysis of statistics and the development of proposals that address the topic of mitigating the significant threats to the population’s health.
Content areas that need to be strengthened are the understanding of the organization’s functioning and the connection between business aspects of operations within healthcare establishments and best practices of care. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing requires professionals to be able to improve the quality of care through organizational and systems leadership (“The essentials of the DNP program,” n.d.). Hence, the next step of the action plan involves improving the understanding of healthcare as a system from a business perspective by examining a particular organization, for instance, a medical center, reviewing the financial and quality benchmarks, and offering an evidence-based intervention that would improve the operations and bottom line of the organization.
Based on the assessment below, it can be concluded that issues, such as leadership when advocating for policies, should be enhanced. This can be done by resolving case assignments, for instance, participating in a debate with colleagues advocating for a particular ethical issue within the healthcare industry. Also, the competency of advocacy can be addressed by researching a specific topic relating to ethical issues and developing a presentation that addresses approaches to resolving it. In addition, the content area that should be enhanced is discussions and the ability to reach consensus, which are crucial skills necessary to achieve an agreement with someone regarding a specific healthcare issue.
