Nurses who are currently pursuing or have already attained a DNP degree have various opportunities for intra- and interdisciplinary collaboration. This basically means that they shall be capable of working in interprofessional teams, thus enabling them to deliver improved healthcare to their patients (Tomkowiak & Maki, 2011).

The School of Nursing for the University of Virginia recognizes the importance of intra- and interprofessional collaboration and has developed specific DNP Policies and Procedures to govern this in its curriculum. According to the program information, this is in response to the increase in complexity of healthcare systems and concerns for the quality of patient care delivery and outcomes (University of Virginia, 2012). The primary objective of this program is to boost patient outcomes through the expansion of the knowledge of the DNP student through practice. Students who wish to pursue the highest clinical expertise level shall be afforded the opportunity to develop competently in areas such as evidence-based practice, system competencies as well as in clinical science (University of Virginia, 2012). This program is, however, tailored for students with a degree from a specialized nursing field (University of Virginia, 2012).

Additionally, the IOM in conjunction with The Robert Wood Foundation embarked on an initiative that aims at responding to the pressing needs of this profession. The sole purpose of this 2- year program is to come up with a comprehensive report that gives the way forward in as far as combating the challenges arising in this profession are concerned (Institute of Medicine, 2010). Among some of the final deliberations of the report are that nurses should be given an opportunity to practice their profession to the fullest extent possible and with the best education.

Both of the above programs only underline the need to have comprehensive policies to govern this emerging trend in the nursing profession. One simply has to adapt to the emerging changes.