Preparing Faculty To Lead Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects: A Faculty Development Pilot Project.

Background/Introduction: A mentoring program was designed to provide faculty the skills to increase confidence when leading Doctor of Nursing Practice projects. The program included an assessment of confidence of six key skills. The intervention included didactic and individual experiential learning that coincided with student progression through project courses.Purpose: The purpose of this project was to provide an intervention to promote faculty confidence when leading DNP projects. The objectives were to: assess faculty participants\u27 self-perceived confidence regarding needed leading DNP projects, create and implement a faculty development program based on the responses, and evaluate the faculty perception of confidence post-intervention. Methods OR Process/Procedures: Participants completed a questionnaire to evaluate perception of confidence regarding leading student DNP projects. The intervention included didactic and individual mentoring, synchronous educational and guidance sessions, along with individual mentoring sessions. The sessions were provided at intervals over 10 months. Mentoring corresponded to DNP course progression. Key skills included project identification, evidence evaluation, frameworks, evidence critiques, methods, implementation, data analysis, and dissemination. Three to four months after the mentoring ended, participants were asked to rate their confidence on the same questionnaire.Results: Participants\u27 self-identified areas of need included understanding application of translation science, methods, statistical choices, and all phases of analysis. Four of the six elements were improved from baseline, with two statistically significant, Project Analysis and Project Dissemination.Limitations: Limitations included, small sample size, questionnaire only tested for face validity, and drop-out rate over time.Conclusions: Mentoring while actively working with student projects is vital to apply concepts in real-time. Pairing junior faculty with senior faculty enhances experiential learning needed to effectively lead DNP projects. Sharing real-time feedback for each component of students\u27 proposals and manuscripts allowed participants to observe mentors providing student guidance