NP to a HIGHER DEGREE Alumna Amanda Rumpke’s DNP project standardized privileges for advanced practitioners across a health system, improving care access and workforce agility. By: Laura Toerner
Amanda Rumpke did not realize she was already doing doctorate-level work at her job until a UC Nursing faculty and mentor told her so. That was when she started to consider earning a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). “I was talking to her a little bit about a system-wide project I was leading and how I thought it was going to impact not only overall care outcomes but also care access and elevation of advanced practice clinicians to the top of their scope of practice,” Rumpke, DNP, APRN-CNP, says.
Amanda Rumpke DNP, APRN-CNP, (on right) and colleagues Noel Lakes, CMA, and Gregory Colangelo, MD.
Her mentor Christine Colella, DNP, APRN-CNP, FAAP, who has since retired from UC College of Nursing, told Rumpke that her work sounded like a project required of the college’s DNP program, which involves planning, implementing and evaluating an initiative that impacts health outcomes on a systems or population level. “So, she helped frame it for me,” says Rumpke, who also earned her Bachelor and Master of Science in Nursing from UC.
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When she entered the Post-Master’s DNP online program, she found her job closely aligned with the coursework. Rumpke serves as the system director of advanced practice clinicians for Bon Secours Mercy Health, one of the largest health systems in the U.S. and where she supports 1,200 advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) and physician assistants (PAs) across four states: Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia and South Carolina. Rumpke’s DNP project focused on a key finding within the health system: APRNs and PAs, especially those in hospitals, were underutilized — not because of legal limitations, but due to internal privileges, which are the services a health worker is permitted to perform based on their credentials and previous performance. To complicate the matter, the system’s rules and privileges varied widely among its hospitals and other sites. All of this translated to reduced patient care access. It saddled advanced practitioners with undue or burdensome physician oversight and prevented them from performing to the full extent of their licensure.
