DNP 899 Module 8 Final Reflection on Growth Example

From Answering Questions to Asking Better Ones: A Reflection on Growth Across a DNP Program

Student Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice Program, Aspen University

DNP 899: DNP Project Capstone

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

From Answering Questions to Asking Better Ones: A Reflection on Growth Across a DNP Program

The capstone course asks for a final reflection on how the doctoral program changed me. It is easier to write about a project than about oneself, and a reflection can slide into a list of accomplishments. I have tried instead to describe what changed in how I think and work, using specific moments from the program and from my capstone on asking mothers about depression at their babies' checkups. The paper covers where I started, four changes in thinking, three moments that caused them, the professional identity that emerged, goals for the next three years and the development I still need.

Where I Started

I entered the program as an experienced pediatric nurse and charge nurse, confident in my clinical judgment and in my ability to solve problems on a shift. I thought of evidence as something other people produced and of improvement as a matter of working harder or writing a clearer policy. I also thought of leadership mainly as authority: the charge nurse assigns, and others follow. None of those views survived the program intact.

Four Changes in Thinking

The first change was in how I use evidence. I now start with what is known, and I read methods before conclusions; the choice of a screening threshold in my capstone rested on a meta-analysis, not on what I had seen others use. The second was in how I see problems. A mother leaving the office without anyone asking how she was coping was not a failure of individual clinicians but a gap in the system, and systems can be redesigned. The third was in how I lead. I learned to lead people who do not report to me by involving them early, sharing data openly and treating mistakes as information. Evidence from a large review links relational leadership with higher nurse satisfaction and better work environments (Cummings et al., 2018), and my experience matched that pattern. The fourth was in how I claim results. I learned, sometimes from a committee's red pen, to say exactly what the data show and no more.

Three Moments

Three moments drove those changes. The first was a comment from a mother on the family advisory group, who said she would not answer the questionnaire honestly if she thought her answers might be reported to child protective services. That comment reshaped the scripts and taught me that a program's design has to start from the fears of the people it serves. The second was the missed safety screen in week six, when a mother who had marked the self-harm item left without assessment. She was reached and was safe, but the event taught me that my instinct under pressure was to look for who had failed, and that the team responded far better when I asked what had failed instead. The third was a committee member crossing out improved maternal outcomes in my draft. I was embarrassed, and then grateful, because the phrase claimed more than the data could support.

People Who Shaped the Growth

The changes did not happen alone. My committee chair taught me to write every rate with its denominator and to read my own drafts as a skeptic would. The practice's social worker taught me more about how mothers experience screening than any article did. And the medical assistants who handed out the questionnaire at every visit taught me that the success of a program depends on the people with the least time and the least recognition. Acknowledging them is part of the reflection, because the growth described here was produced in their company.

The Professional Identity That Emerged

I now think of myself as a practice scholar: a nurse whose work is to find gaps between evidence and care, design changes to close them, measure honestly what happens and share what was learned. That identity sits alongside my clinical one rather than replacing it. The national competency framework for nursing education includes personal, professional and leadership development as a domain of its own, with commitments to lifelong learning and to the well-being of the nurse (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2021), and I see that domain less as a requirement than as a description of the habits I want to keep.

Goals for the Next Three Years

I have three goals. In my new role as a nursing quality leader for the health system's ambulatory practices, I will support the spread of maternal depression screening to the other pediatric practices with the measurement plan the committee endorsed. I will publish the capstone and one further improvement report, so that my work is open to critique beyond my program. And I will mentor at least two nurses through their first improvement projects, passing on the tools that helped me.

Development Still Needed

The program also showed me where I am still weak. I over-explain when I am uncertain, which I noticed during the defense. My statistical skills are adequate for improvement work but not for more complex designs, and I plan to take a course in methods for comparing sites. And I tend to take on too much, which the capstone's timeline exposed. A systematic review of reflective practice in health professions education found it widely regarded as essential to competence, though largely supported by theory rather than trials (Mann et al., 2009). I will keep writing a short reflection after each major project, less because the evidence demands it than because this program showed me it works for me.

Conclusion

The program changed me from a nurse who answers questions well into one who asks better questions: what the evidence says, where the system fails, how to lead people who do not report to me and how to say exactly what my data show. The capstone gave those changes a concrete test. I leave the program with a clearer identity, specific goals and an honest list of what I still need to learn.

References

American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2021). The essentials: Core competencies for professional nursing education.

Cummings, G. G., Tate, K., Lee, S., Wong, C. A., Paananen, T., Micaroni, S. P. M., & Chatterjee, G. E. (2018). Leadership styles and outcome patterns for the nursing workforce and work environment: A systematic review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 85, 19-60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2018.04.016

Mann, K., Gordon, J., & MacLeod, A. (2009). Reflection and reflective practice in health professions education: A systematic review. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 14(4), 595-621. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-007-9090-2