Episode 331: DNP and PhD Collaboration Strategies to Help Advance Oncology Care
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“One of the biggest things we’ve heard in nursing school and we continue to hear in practice is it takes anywhere from 15 to 20 years for knowledge in the literature to reach practice in a significant way. The DNP was designed to speed that up. We don’t want the best practices in literature to take 15 years. We want it to take 1 or 2 at best,” James Q. Simmons, DNP, AG/ACNP-BC, acute care nurse practitioner at Epic Medical Group in Los Angeles, CA, and founder of drjamesqsimmons.com, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about how DNP- and PhD-prepared nurses can collaborate to advance patient care and research.

Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust)” by Kevin MacLeod

Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 

Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by October 4, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to strategies for DNP and PhD collaboration.

Episode Notes 

• Complete this evaluation for free NCPD). 

• Oncology Nursing Podcast™ episodes:

• Episode 323: What It’s Like to Participate in an ONS Think Tank)

• Episode 248: The Basics of Evidence-Based Practice for Every Oncology Nurse)

• Episode 150: Career Planning for Oncology Nurses)

• *ONS Voice *articles:

• Adopt an Evidence-Based Practice Model to Facilitate Practice Change)

• Oncology Nurses Drive Discovery in Cancer Clinical Research)

• Overcome Barriers to Applying an Evidence-Based Process for Practice Change)

• Research Has a Role for Every Oncology Nurse)

• Strengthen a Commitment to Practice Change Through EBP Immersions)

• The Difference Between Quality Improvement, Evidence-Based Practice, and Research)

• What the Next Generation of Nurse Researchers Learned From the ONS Precision Symptom Science Workshop)

• ONS courses:

• Introduction to Evidence-Based Practice)

• Professional Practice for the Advanced Practice RN)

• Professional Practice—Oncology RN)

• Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing (CJON) articles:

• Introducing the DNP Projects Department)

• SEEK™: A Program to Implement Evidence-Based Practice and Transform Oncology Nursing Practice)

• CJON call for manuscripts: DNP-PhD Collaborative Work Manuscript Submissions) 

• Oncology Nursing Forum articles:

• Considerations for the Doctor of Nursing Practice Degree)

• The Research Doctorate in Nursing: The PhD)

• ONS Learning Libraries:

• Evidence-Based Practice) 

• Leadership)

• ONS Spirit of Inquiry Worksheet)

To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities). 

To find resources for creating an Oncology Nursing Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library).

To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email [email protected]).

Highlights From This Episode

“Nurses are expertly and perfectly positioned to be the leaders in [artificial intelligence] and technology, and reduction in workforce, and robotics, and all these different things that are happening in our healthcare system right now. I think nurses are primed to be the leaders of that, not just the ones reacting to it. And I think we become the leaders of that by having really, really eloquent, really fine-tuned PhD and DNP collaboration.” TS 6:42

“We had 30 people in this room all ‘speed dating’ each other. They were told beforehand to bring their 30-second elevator pitch; bring their business cards, either electronic or in person; bring what they’re looking for; bring a fun attitude. … There were two individuals who were focused on pediatric populations, both working on vaccine initiatives in marginalized and underserved communities, and they had no idea that each other had existed.” TS 12:59

“I think we’ve got to think about how we approach our own profession in service of our patients and the communities that we serve. We’ve got to think about things differently, and I think that we as nurses are the ones to do that. We are in such a sweet spot where we can be innovators, and we can be quick thinkers because we are, and we’re so highly educated and so highly experienced as a profession, that we’ve got to take as much of this knowledge as we can and share it with everyone and figure out what the best practices are going to be.” TS 19:14

“I think it’s also really important to acknowledge that PhD nurses are not just our friends in ivory towers who don’t practice and haven’t seen the inside of a clinic or listened to a patient’s lung sounds in 38 years. Sure, there are some of those PhD nurses that exist right now, and we need them. They play a valuable role. But that’s not all that being a PhD nurse means. There are plenty of PhD nurses who are doing really incredible things in the grind, in the hustle, on a day-to-day basis.” TS 24:07