Professional DNP Leadership Capacity

 According to the World Health Organization Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of death in the world. It has been attributed to approximately 3.23 million deaths in 2019. COPD is considered a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by increased inflammation and airflow obstruction in the lungs. It may encompass conditions such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema (Soumagne et al., 2020). Nurses play a pivotal role in the care of COPD patients as they are often in the first point of contact with these patients. The DNP-prepared nurse is educationally prepared at the highest professional level in their respective field to improve healthcare outcomes and lead clinical practice change. Organizational Needs Assessment COPD treatment may begin in the primary care office or a community health clinic. In these settings providers have the responsibility of discussing the disease and treatment for the very first time. It is important that COPD action plans be clearly discussed with the patient as well as instructing how to use metered dose inhalers which are one of the key components of outpatient treatment of this disease. The local or clinic stake holders involved in this healthcare issue would be local government, employers, community organizations, providers, and the patients. Patients' with COPD will require a willingness to adopt lifestyle changes, learn self care, create an action plan, and adhere to outpatient follow up. Utilizing the organizational needs assessment tool, a practice gap can be identified in relation to inadequate instruction or patient teaching regarding the use of metered dose inhalers (Usmani et al., 2018). In the COPD patient population in the outpatient settin, smoking cessation counseling and routine office monitoring shoulder be performed. Factors contributing to this practice gap can include but is not limited to new inhaler designs and lack of proper patient teaching. The target population are COPD patients' who have been recently discharged from the hospital