Paving the way for post-master's DNP graduates in clinical gerontological leadership.

D of nursing practice (DNP) students at the postmaster’s level bring unique opportunities to gerontological nursing at a critical point in time. With a rapidly increasing cohort of older adults, advanced gerontological and leadership expertise is needed. Opportunities exist for gerontological role development in education, advanced clinical care, and broad systems and population leadership. Graduate faculty can encourage this influx of post-master’s students to focus on clinical gerontological leadership— guiding them in advanced projects, partnering with clinical agencies—to advance safe quality care of older adults. In this guest editorial, opportunities are shared for both post-master’s DNP students and for faculty to guide in advanced clinical leadership for gerontological nursing. Advancing education to promote improved patient care in increasingly complex settings has been recommended in national reports such as The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health (Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2011). This report has particular relevance for the current influx of post-master’s students in DNP programs. These individuals bring enthusiasm for their clinician roles and typically years of clinical experience to this clinical doctorate. This background provides an opportunity to merge professional experience with their DNP coursework to develop gerontological leadership skills. They also gain opportunities to develop projects important to older adults and the individuals who care for them.