Week 15 Assignment 1: Reflection of DNP Defense

I attended Nicole Edwards-Hamilton DNP Defense on 04/13/2023 @ 4:00 pm EST. The title of
her project is  The Nurse Empowerment! A Critical Construct of the Professional Nurse. This
DNP student gave an excellent presentation and defense of her project, which was very educative
to me on how I can prepare and defend my own DNP project in the future. First, the student used
a systematic approach to describe her project's components, starting from her project topic,
problem statement, literature review findings, data collection research findings, etc. Her
confidence while defending her project attests to the level of in-depth work, commitment, and
hard work in ensuring her project was successful. She was able to defend every question related
to her DNP project from the defense committee without mistakes, and her project defense was
successful.

The major point from the project defense I can apply to my SPP project is research data
collection, analyzing data, and interpretation of findings. While watching the project defense, the
student explained the method she used in data collection and analysis. She gave a detailed
explanation of the result of the data analysis and how the research findings will impact
professional nurses, especially those that work in a highly demanding environment.

In preparing for my project defense, I will need help organizing my DNP defense power points
using a systematic approach to cover every aspect of my project within the allotted time. The
project defense by the student lasted about 45 minutes which, to me, is too little to cover every
part of the project. The student was able to finish within the specified time using well-organized
power points. I will need a guideline on constructing a good PowerPoint highlighting the
required areas to be addressed during the defense.

One of the goals I plan to achieve in preparation for my defense is to build self-confidence,
which will enable me to defend my project without fear. Even when you have an excellent SPP
project but lack confidence in presenting your work, it can negatively affect your performance.
Presenting your SPP project with confidence shows that you are confident in your work and also
goes a long way to unveil the level of your commitment, hard work, in-depth sacrifice, and effort
that you put into your project. I also plan on practicing my defense several times ahead of time to
ensure that I am well-prepared. I will continue attending more of the DNP project defense to
continue acclimatizing myself to the processes and protocols needed for a successful project
defense.