Assignment: Membership in Professional Organizations At various points in your career as a nurse, you have most likely observed significant problems in your practice environment(s). Take a few minutes to think about the problems you have noticed. Through the DNP degree, candidates develop the tools needed to address practice-related concerns through evidence-based solutions. In this week’s media presentation, Dr. Beechinor and Dr. Stefan discuss this process while sharing their own DNP projects and the needs these projects addressed. Candidates in the PhD program conduct research involving a problem related to practice or another area of professional interest and, as such, often work with DNP-prepared nurses. To support your doctoral project and growth as a scholar-practitioner, you are required to join a professional nursing organization. Membership in a professional organization offers numerous benefits, including educational endeavors, advocacy opportunities, up-to-date information of interest to the profession, and much more. Some organizations offer scholarships, continuing education units, and a means for disseminating current research findings. In addition, joining a professional organization can help you to become involved in decision making at the organizational level and provide a venue for engaging in social change efforts that benefit your community. This week’s Assignment serves as your Major Assessment for this course. You identify a DNP project or research topic and select an organization that will facilitate or be useful to you as you engage in your doctoral project (DNP Scholarly project or dissertation research). In addition, the professional nursing organization should be relevant for your current or anticipated professional practice. You then outline plans for participation in the organization and articulate how this could help you meet your professional goals and support your project development. To prepare: DNP students: Reflect on the DNP projects Dr. Beechinor and Dr. Stefan discussed in this week’s media presentation, as well as the DNP Scholarly Project specifications outlined in the AACN  Essentials . Also, review the end-of-program requirements you explored for the Assignment due in Week 5. Consider your professional experiences in light of new information you may have encountered in this course. With this in mind, identify a need or change related to a practice environment. Please note that the objective of this activity is to increase your awareness of potential DNP projects; you are not committing to a project idea at this time. Consider which professional nursing organization you would like to join and how they organization relates to your identified practice need or change or research problem. How might participating in this group support the development of your DNP Scholarly Project or PhD Dissertation? There are numerous types of organizations that qualify as professional nursing organizations, including:.

1. Assignment: Membership in Professional Organizations
At various points in your career as a nurse, you have most likely
observed significant problems in your practice environment(s).
Take a few minutes to think about the problems you have
noticed.
Through the DNP degree, candidates develop the tools needed
to address practice-related concerns through evidence-based
solutions. In this week’s media presentation, Dr. Beechinor and
Dr. Stefan discuss this process while sharing their own DNP
projects and the needs these projects addressed. Candidates in
the PhD program conduct research involving a problem related
to practice or another area of professional interest and, as such,
often work with DNP-prepared nurses.
To support your doctoral project and growth as a scholar-
practitioner, you are required to join a professional nursing
organization. Membership in a professional organization offers
numerous benefits, including educational endeavors, advocacy
opportunities, up-to-date information of interest to the
profession, and much more. Some organizations offer
scholarships, continuing education units, and a means for
disseminating current research findings. In addition, joining a
professional organization can help you to become involved in
decision making at the organizational level and provide a venue
for engaging in social change efforts that benefit your
community.
This week’s Assignment serves as your Major Assessment for
this course. You identify a DNP project or research topic and
select an organization that will facilitate or be useful to you as
you engage in your doctoral project (DNP Scholarly project or
dissertation research). In addition, the professional nursing
organization should be relevant for your current or anticipated

2. professional practice. You then outline plans for participation in
the organization and articulate how this could help you meet
your professional goals and support your project development.
To prepare:
DNP students:
Reflect on the DNP projects Dr. Beechinor and Dr. Stefan
discussed in this week’s media presentation, as well as the DNP
Scholarly Project specifications outlined in the AACN
Essentials
. Also, review the end-of-program requirements you explored
for the Assignment due in Week 5.
Consider your professional experiences in light of new
information you may have encountered in this course. With this
in mind, identify a need or change related to a practice
environment. Please note that the objective of this activity is to
increase your awareness of potential DNP projects; you are not
committing to a project idea at this time.
Consider which professional nursing organization you would
like to join and how they organization relates to your identified
practice need or change or research problem. How might
participating in this group support the development of your
DNP Scholarly Project or PhD Dissertation?
There are numerous types of organizations that qualify as
professional nursing organizations, including:
An organization that focuses on a specific area of clinical
practice (e.g., Association of Operating Room Nursing [AORN],
American Holistic Nurses Association [AHNA])
A state or national nursing organization (e.g., American Nurses
Association [ANA]
or Texas Nurses Association [TNA])
An area of scholarly emphasis (e.g., American Association of
Colleges of Nursing [AACN] or National League for Nursing
[NLN])
An organization that emphasizes specific groups of nurses (e.g.,

3. American Assembly for Men in Nursing [AAMN] or National
Association of Hispanic Nurses [NAHN])
After evaluating these organizations in light of your most
salient professional concerns, goals, and doctoral project select
one organization to join. Complete the steps necessary for
joining this professional organization.
Note:
If you are already a member of a professional nursing
organization, you are not required to join an additional
organization; however, you need to submit documentation of
your membership and complete the Assignment below.
To complete:
1)
1)
Write an introduction ending with a purpose statement
2)
Write a 1-page paper describing a need or change related to a
practice environment or a problem that is suitable for research.
Include your rationale for why this situation or topic warrants
attention.
3)
Outline your plans for participation in the professional nursing
organization, and describe how this will help you to meet your
professional goals. Also, consider how the organization may
correlate with or support the development of your DNP
Scholarly Project in the future
.
(my professional organization is American Nurses Association
[ANA] SEE

4. http://www.nursingworld.org/
)
4)
Include a summary
5)
Include documentation of your membership at the end of your
Major Assessment as an Appendix. (You may copy and paste the
e-mail verification of your membership, or copy your
membership receipt and paste it into your Word doc.) Be sure to
observe proper APA style for including appendices
(See attached File)
This assignment must be written in APA format and include at
least 4 references from the list below
Required Readings
Zaccagnini, M. E., & White, K. W. (2014). The doctor of
nursing practice essentials: A new model for advanced practice
nursing (2nd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett. [Vital Source
e-reader]
Chapter 10, “A Template for the DNP Scholarly Project”
This chapter discusses the AACN proposals for the DNP
project. The project should address practice-based problems and
propose evidence-based solutions. The DNP project is further
defined with a comparison to the PhD thesis. The authors
provide nine steps that should be incorporated into the structure
of a DNP Scholarly Project.

5. American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). (2006).
The essentials of doctoral education for advanced nursing
practice. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from
https://www.aacn.nche.edu/publications/position/DNPEssentials
.pdf
“Final DNP Project” (p. 20)
In this reading, the AACN provides examples of suitable DNP
projects.
Walden School of Nursing. (2011). Doctor of nursing practice
program manual. Minneapolis, MN: Author. Retrieved from
http://ecampus.waldenu.edu/c/Student_Faculty/StudentFaculty_
18625.htm
To access, click link and scroll down to Program Documents
The Walden School of Nursing program manual provides
valuable information that guides you through your program.
Forsyth, D. M., Wright, T. L., Scherb, C. A., & Gaspar, P. M.
(2010). Disseminating evidence-based practice projects: Poster
design and evaluation. Clinical Scholars Review, 3(1), 14–21.
Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library
databases.
In the health care field, DNP projects are not as available
publicly as more traditional research-based thesis projects. The
authors of this article propose strategies for resolving this gap
in access to the literature.
Required Media
Laureate Education (Producer). (2011c). The DNP project
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

6. Note:
The approximate length of this media piece is 6 minutes.
In this media presentation, Dr. Linda Beechinor and Dr. Susan
Stefan describe their DNP projects, including the applicability
of these projects to the practice environment.
Optional Resources
Walden University Center for Research Quality. (n.d.). DNP
doctoral study process and documents. Retrieved from
http://researchcenter.waldenu.edu/DNP-Doctoral-Study-
Program.htm
1)