purpose of PhD in nursing??

[l33tnewb11]

Just as the title suggests, what is the purpose of this? A PhD implies research and original contribution to the field of study. I don't understand what "cutting edge" research is being done in nursing. Nursing is a vocational career, you can't really do much else with a nursing degree other than be a nurse. Nursing is also limited in its scope of practice as it is a medical support role (albiet the backbone of hospitals and most medical facilities).

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

Nurses have been elected to the Institute of Medicine for their contribution to advancing health in the US every year and in 2012 alone, 3 were elected:

Diana Wilkie

Marilyn Rantz

Jack Neeldeman

Institute of Medicine Includes Three Nurse Leaders in 2012 Membership Election | Home | Campaign for Action | Champion Nursing

Correction:

Jack Needleman, PhD, FAAN, of UCLA is not a nurse by profession. He holds the rare honor of being a non-nurse inducted into the American Academy of Nursing because of his work in advancing the field of nursing.

http://hpm.ph.ucla.edu/news/dr-jack-needleman-has-been-elected-institute-medicine

[777RN, BSN, RN]

I've been reading this thread with interest and am writing to ask for clarification from those more knowledgeable.

While I absolutely see the value of nursing research, as nurses are the frontline of health care, I am confused as to how nursing research becomes adopted into clinical practice. My confusion lies in the fact that most (not all!) treatment modalities are medically driven and nursing implemented. So, how do nursing researchers influence physicians to adopt their findings? For example, a nursing friend of mine wants to study protocols related to opioid withdrawal. Since such protocols are physician defined, doesn't such research cross over into medicine? If so, it seems that the research is no longer, strictly speaking, nursing research. Maybe I'm having trouble getting my head around what seems, in my mind, to be a large gray area.

Could someone shed some light on this please? Thanks in advance.

[llg, PhD, RN]

Wendyyvonne: I think you are right in that there is a growing "gray area" in aspects of research, practice, and education as the scope of nursing practice evolves into areas once the exclusive domain of physicians. Everything is not clear cut.

In a traditional "purist" view, physicians would practice and research the medical treatments that they alone were able to prescribe. Nursing practice and research would focus on the traditional nursing care of the patient receiving those medical treatments. However, that is changing, and today we see more nurses making practice decisions and doing research about things that were once considered "only medical." Now that the situation is changing, the wise health care provider in ANY discipline considers the scientific evidence generated by people in ALL disciplines, not just his/her own. Just as nurses use information and knowledge generated by physiologists, psychologists, etc. ... physicians can similarly incorporate knowledge generated by physiologists, psychologists, etc. -- and yes, even nurses.

This evolution is slow and certainly there are "bumps in the road", but it is happening. It is part of the reason why nursing leaders are pushing for higher educational standards for nurses. They want our skills, knowledge, and ability to generate knowledge to be respected within the larger world of academia and health care practice. We need to earn the respect of others by showing them that our research (and practice) is worthy of that respect. And as we progress along this path, it can be "gray and murky" at times.

What distiguishes one discipline from another is not just the topics of their knowledge (used or generated) ... but the disciplinary perspective from which and through which knowedge in generated, viewed, and used. This key point was a core principle in my PhD dissertation. It isn't just relevant to discussions about medicine vs. nursing ... but between ANY two disciplines. For example, both a computer scientist and a nurse can study the use of computers by nurses -- same general topic, but they will approach the topic from different disciplinary perspectives. A nurse and a nutritionist with approach a patient with a nutrition problem differently ... etc. (Pick any combination of disciplines you want.)

What makes one discipline distinct from another is a philosophical topic of great depth -- the type of thing one explores in a PhD program. Thanks for bringing up the topic. It was fun for me to re-visit that train of thought.

[777RN, BSN, RN]

llg: Thank you very much for this thoughtful reply. (Incidentally, I have read and enjoyed many of your insightful posts throughout AllNurses.com.) Your thoughts confirm what I suspected. Thanks again!

[Teasey1490]

Nursing is the most flexible and respected profession ever. Nurses, particularly those with terminal degres (PhD) are prepared to carry orginal research and enrich the knowledge of already existed Nursing science. And its clear that PhD degree is neccessary in every field even in maths that need least. I would kindly advise you to extract updated information about the fast growing Nursing field.