Wanted: Nurse PhDs

The co-director of a nursing scholars program says doctoral degrees can help nurses become visionary thinkers, researchers, policy makers, and leaders.

Of the nation's 3 million nurses, only about 1% of them hold doctoral degrees in nursing or a related field, but a new program from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation aims to boost that number.

"We certainly hope to cause a bump in the trend," says Julie Fairman, RN, PhD, FAAN, Nightingale Professor in Nursing and Director of the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

Fairman is also co-director of the Future of Nursing Scholars program, which earlier this month selected the 14 schools of nursing that will receive grants to support 17 nurses as they pursue their PhDs. These inaugural grantees will select students to receive financial support, mentoring, and leadership development over the three years of their PhD programs.

The IOM's Future of Nursing report is often cited for its call for 80% of nurses to hold a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing by 2020. But the report also calls on the field to double its number of nurses with doctorates by 2020.

Faculty Needed
One barrier to doctoral-prepared nurses is the dearth of faculty at nursing schools. Fairman tells me that already, nursing schools are turning away applicants because of a shallow faculty pool. Plus, she says that the average age of nurse faculty is 60 years old.

"We really need to replenish that," she says. "We really don't have the capacity to replace those who will retire in five years."

Earning a PhD doesn't simply prepare nurses to work in academic fields.

"The idea of nurses with PhDs is a really important one, especially for C-suite nurses and nurses in health systems," Fairman says. She adds that because PhD education is research-focused, earning one prepares "visionary nurses" who are skilled leaders, and who know how dive deeply into data.

Prepared to Lead
Because of this preparation, nurse executives and other nurse leaders with PhDs are well-equipped to develop and lead research- and evidence-based quality and safety initiatives, as well as get a larger team involved in such efforts, too. Fairman says CNOs with doctoral degrees "are some of the most creative nurse leaders in the country."

"These are things that nurses are really, really good at understanding and leading initiatives around them," Fairman says. "A lot of the CNOs who have PhDs have done incredible research on developing new models of care, how to improve safety, and how to institute measures to improve patient outcomes."

Fairman also told me that holding a PhD could potentially help with parity for nurse leaders, saying that it's helpful to have a PhD when dealing with physicians and other PhD-prepared administrators.

"The degree and the study they do for that really situates them as different thinkers," she says.

In addition to boosting the number of PhD-prepared nurses, the program also aims to encourage nurses to earn their PhDs while they're younger so they can have a longer career trajectory.

According to the RWJF announcement of the grantees, the average age at which nurses get their PhDs in the United States is 46. That's ­13 years older than PhD earners in other fields. Often, that's because nurses tend to earn their nursing degrees and practice for several years before earning a more advanced degree.

A 'Different Career Trajectory'
"There's a tradition in nursing that you practice to get experience in the real world, and there's something to be said for that… but [this] career trajectory is different," Fairman says. "We'd really love a lot of young people to enter the profession as leaders."

The Future of Nursing Scholars program plans to support up to 100 PhD nursing candidates over its first two years. In addition to RWJF, this year's funders include United Health Foundation, Independence Blue Cross Foundation, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and the Rhode Island Foundation.

Fairman says that although rigorous, the program will include "exquisite support," leadership development, and opportunities for networking throughout. She hopes that three years down the road, she'll be able to say that these students have become "crackerjack researchers, policy makers, scientists… and the leaders of tomorrow."