Duke Alumnae Support DNP Scholarship with the Hope Fund

When Dr. Hope Holmes was trying to advance her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project, she found herself at a standstill after months of work.

Holmes—an adult gerontology nurse practitioner (AGNP) providing endocrine-diabetes care at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, NY—wanted to educate patients from a broad range of cultural backgrounds regarding how to incorporate the cultural foods they enjoyed into their daily meal plans while still adhering to recommendations from leading authorities such as the American Diabetes Association (ADA), which traditionally base recommendations on the typical American diet.

Despite her passion for the project, Holmes felt directionless after encountering various obstacles, unsure of how to implement the next phase. She turned to faculty member Dr. Julee Briscoe Waldrop, herself an alumna of Duke’s DNP program (’10).

“Within 30 minutes of our conversation, I had clear direction and insight regarding how I could successfully implement my project, avoiding processes that would be cumbersome, convoluted, and costly,” Holmes remembered. “I had gained the clarity I needed to guide me to a successful outcome. I will forever be grateful to Dr. Waldrop for being the light I needed when I was in a place of utter darkness.”

The Impact of DNP Scholarly Work

Explaining the importance of DNP scholarly work like Holmes’s, Waldrop said, “The DNP-prepared nurse is most likely going to be in practice, or teaching, but will not be doing research. The goal is that the DNP-prepared nurse can take research and lead its implementation into practice in sustainable ways that serve to improve care. If we don’t tell others about what we’re doing, everyone will be out there reinventing the wheel. Being able to disseminate what has been done in one health system or even one clinic can allow others to transfer and adapt that in their own setting.” 

After graduating in 2024—and publishing her project in Nutrition Today—Holmes searched for a way to recognize Waldrop’s mentorship. Waldrop, likewise inspired by Holmes’s work and nursing journey, established the Hope Fund, which both Waldrop and Holmes have contributed to in support of Duke DNP students. 

The Hope Fund provides financial assistance to DNP students seeking to advance their scholarly work—for instance, those seeking to publish in journals requiring fees, those attending conferences, and those incurring other expenses related to publication or dissemination of their work. 

“Students enrolled in the DNP program are from diverse backgrounds, often having to work part-time or not work at all,” Holmes explained. “Others may have financial responsibilities that make it challenging to take on additional costs. The Hope Fund can be instrumental in advancing a student’s DNP project without the added stress of funding.”

Waldrop, who said she would be donating to the Hope Fund every year, emphasized the impact of DNP-prepared nurse scholarship. “Even if there’s a ton of research saying we should do things a certain way, it’s the actual making it happen in the real world that DNP-prepared nurses can and should be leading, then sharing and disseminating. It can take 15-17 years for research findings to be implemented in clinical practice, but the doctoral degree gives DNPs those additional skills they need to lead evidence-based improvements.”

Holmes agreed, saying, “It is through translating research into practice that we can best support health and well-being in persons from diverse cultures and backgrounds.”

If you are interested in supporting the Hope Fund, please contact Kirsten Beattie, Senior Director of Development.