It is a common practice for higher learning institutions all over the world to make it mandatory for students pursuing a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) to work on a DNP capstone project. A DNP capstone project is essentially a form of a scholarly work that proves that a student can apply the skills as well as knowledge learnt in school in a real world. Basically, when undertaking such a project, students are required to identify a research problem and utilize the research skills learnt in the DNP program in solving a public health problem. Stated differently, a DNP or DPI capstone project culminates doctoral studies in this field of specialization. Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that this type of assignment demands that students should contribute original knowledge to the field of nursing practice as well as solve a significant public health problem. Writing this type of academic work is a lengthy process that starts with brainstorming for a research problem and goes all the way to writing the final report of your research findings.
The first step that is involved in writing a capstone project is identifying a research problem. This might sound straight forward but it is actually one of the DNP capstone writing stages that students find hard to handle. The research problem should be among other things come from an area where you are genuinely interested in or passionate about. Your area of research should also be centered around your area of specialization. This is because a doctorate student is expected to be an expert in his/her area of specialization and as such, it is only reasonable for such a student to conduct research in such an area so as to be updated on the current research and findings in that area. This is to say that although there are limitless areas that DNP students can focus on, you should always limit your focus to your specific area of interest. It is from the research problem that you narrow down into a research topic that can be broken down into variables that can be measured. As a rule of thumb, a DNP capstone project should include some elements of planning, implementation as well as evaluation of a given intervention in the field of healthcare.
The second stage of writing a DNP capstone project is reviewing the available relevant literature. The review of the available literature helps you to further refine your topic of study. It also helps you to be conversant with what have already been done in your area of study so that you don’t end up unnecessarily duplicating research. This stage is quite crucial as it also assists you to know the various theories that you can use in your study. The available literature also forms the basis which you will use when analyzing the data and the available evidence.
The third step that is involved in writing a DNP capstone project is designing the methodology that you will use in conducting your study. This is the stage when you clearly explain the research design that your study is going to adopt. In addition, you should discuss the data collection tools that you are going to us and how valid and reliable they are. Moreover, you must discuss the target as well as accessible population of your study. This is one of the most important stages in writing a DNP capstone since how reliable and valid your study shall be is to a great extent determined by how well you execute the various tasks involved in this step of writing.
Fourthly, you are required to analyze the collected data and use the available evidence to come up with practical solutions to a given health problem. This is actually the stage when you make a practical contribution in the field of nursing practice. It is however worth to keep it in mind that all the suggestions made should be based on the collected data and available evidence. This is because making conclusions and recommendations that are not based on the data that you have collected and the available evidence amounts to falsification of data. It is worth to note that Falsification of data is one of the ethical issues in scholarly research that should be avoided at all costs.
Lastly, you should come up with a clear plan of how to implement the recommendations that you have suggested based on the results of your study. This is also an important stage of writing a DNP Capstone and sometimes it involves the various projects and programs implemented based on the given recommendations of your study.
It then follows that working a on capstone project is a systematic process that requires one to posses not only research skills but also critical thinking skills. Before embarking on this challenging yet academically fulfilling journey you should ask yourself a number of questions. Such questions include but not limited to; what is the focus of my project? How will my project demonstrate my expertise in my field of study? Is there available relevant literature that can serve as a basis for my DNP capstone project? Is my project capable of contributing new knowledge to the field of nursing practice and what is the practical problem in the field of nursing practice that my project will solve? Answering the aforementioned questions will help you know whether you really have a significant real world problem in the field of nursing that is worth solving using research and critical thinking.
DNP Capstone Project Writing Tips
Some of the tips on how to write a DNP capstone project include; avoiding plagiarism, editing and proofreading your final copy and being time conscious. You should also make sure that your final report is in the right format. Basically, a DNP nursing capstone project should have; an abstract, the introduction, statement of the problem, literature review, presentation of the data, analysis and discussion of the data and description of the various ways to solve the identified problem based on the collected data and available evidence.