The Journal of School Nursing2022, Vol. 38(2) 124–125© The Author(s) 2022Article reuse guidelines:sagepub.com/journals-permissionsDOI: 10.1177/10598405211073867journals.sagepub.com/home/jsn
The number of school nurses who are entering graduate school to earn the doctoral degree is increasing just as the overall number of nurses who seek doctoral degrees grows every year (AACN, 2020). The two types of nursing doctoral degrees are the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). Both PhD and DNP prepared nurses are scholars—the PhD is a research scholar, and the DNP is a nursing practice scholar. The PhD conducts research that creates knowledge for practice. The DNP is an implementation specialist who applies that empirical knowledge to practice. The DNP prepared nurse brings about systems changes and changes in provider behavior to align with the knowledge generated by the researchers. The DNP practice scholar plans the implementation of the change and measures the processes and outcomes of those changes. The PhD produces the “Knowing” and the DNP generates the “Doing”. The work of both PhD and DNP nursing scholars is necessary to improve the structure, process, and outcomes of care. Whereas the PhD requires a dissertation research study to confer the degree, the DNP student is required to conduct an evidence-based practice, quality improvement or policy project within a real-world setting. Both PhD and DNP graduates are expected to disseminate their dissertation and project through presentations and publications
In the last twenty years, the Knowing-Doing gap, the lag between the discovery of knowledge and its adoption for practice has decreased by only two years, from 17 to 15 years (Kahn et al., 2021). For school nursing practice to advance and to truly make a difference in student and population health, it is imperative to shrink that gap and accelerate adoption of nursing practices that improve the health of students and school communities.
The majority of PhD recipients contribute to school nursing science by publishing their dissertation research. Ninety-seven out of the last 100 manuscripts accepted for publication in The Journal of School Nursing were original research, brief research reports, or literature reviews. No policy reports were submitted during that period and only three out of those 100 accepted manuscripts were evidence-based practice or quality improvement projects that translate research into practice. Unfortunately, scores of DNP projects that consume months of effort and have great lessons for the specialty are left on the shelf, and not submitted for publication. Compounding the problem, some of the few projects that are submitted were not designed with the rigor necessary to support practice change.
The role of nursing faculty is critical for mentoring students to conduct a publishable DNP project that contributes to science. Prior to embarking on the DNP Project journey, faculty can be explicit that the project will be executed with rigor and that publication is expected (Anderson et al., 2019). Students can be encouraged to read the guidelines for authors early in the process and anticipate the structure, word limit and the publication style of the citations and references. Holding preliminary discussions surrounding authorship and author order demonstrate the faculty’s confidence of the student’s capabilities. Throughout the project, assignments can be scaffolded, or submitted in stages with multiple revisions, to produce an edited polished manuscript as the final project outcome.
To ensure there is a sufficient progress in translating evidence for practice, the number of submissions on how to implement systems and practice changes in the school setting must increase substantially. Some steps have already been taken to increase submissions. The Journal of School Nursing Editorial Advisory Board and the Editorial Panel revised and expanded the guidelines for authors for such manuscripts to provide more direction for novice authors (SAGE, 2021). National Association of School Nurses launched Meet the Editor interactive webinars to encourage first publications and to help new authors navigate the submission process (2021). However, more needs to be done to promote the publication of practice scholarship.
Therefore, The Journal of School Nursing is issuing a Call for Manuscripts of Evidence Based Practice, Quality Improvement and Policy Reports. Please submit your evidence-based practice, quality improvement and policy manuscripts to The Journal of School Nursing https://journals.sagepub.com/home/jsn by July 1, 2022 to be considered for publication in 2023. The manuscripts will be reviewed using the journal’s evidence-based practice, quality improvement and policy reports’ guidelines for authors https://journals.sagepub.com/author-instructions/JSN.
The entire editorial team at The Journal of School Nursing looks forward to publishing your clinical scholarly reports and narrowing the Knowing-Doing gap.
Martha Dewey Bergren, PhD, RN, NCSN, PHNA-BC, FNASN, FASHA, FAAN
Martha Dewey Bergren, PhD, RN, NCSN, PHNA-BC, FNASN, FASHA, FAAN https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8655-5418
American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2020). DNP fact sheet. Washington, DC. https://www.aacnnursing.org/News-Information/Fact-Sheets/DNP-Fact-Sheet
Anderson, K. M., McLaughlin, M. K., Crowell, N. A., Fall-Dickson, J. M., White, K. A., Heitzler, E. T., Kesten, K. S., & Yearwood, E. L. (2019). Mentoring students engaging in scholarly projects and dissertations in doctoral nursing programs. Nursing Outlook, 67(6), 776–788. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2019.06.021
Khan, S., Chambers, D., & Neta, G. (2021). Revisiting time to translation: Implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in cancer control. Cancer Causes & Control, 32(3), 221–230. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-30020-01376-z
National Association of School Nurses (NASN) (2021). Meet the Editor. https://www.pathlms.com/nasn/courses/32380
SAGE (2021). The Journal of School Nursing Manuscript Submission Guidelines. https://journals.sagepub.com/authorinstructions/JSN
