Any PhD's here?

Hi, Joe.

I got my PhD in 1997 and I work for a children's hospital doing staff development, running a summer nursing student extern program, being the liaison between the hospital and all the local schools of nursing, chairing the Research and Evidence-Based Practice Commttee, and assorted other odd projects. I've recently been doing some preliminary work getting us started on a Magnet journey. I also teach part time at a local university.

I'll be online a lot this weekend (as usual) and would be happy to partcipate in a discussion of PhD-related topics.

llg

Which leaves the hospital positions that llg mentioned. While I would prefer to avoid management roles, I could do something like staff development. But I wonder how many of those positions there are, and whether I really need to get a PhD to do something like that.

Of course, part of the problem is that I haven't worked as an RN yet so there's a lot that I'm just not familiar with. I had a long clinical on a tele unit and found it boring, but I might find other units more interesting.

Positions that focus on the types of things that I do used to be non-existent. Now, there are a few of them around. I think there will be a lot more in the future. As the whole "evidence-based" culture spreads and the desire for Magnet designation spreads, etc. more and more hospitals will NEED people on board who understand research, can apply it, and can conduct an ocassional research project themselves. Hospitals will need people who can lead and mentor the staff in these types of functions. While people prepared at the Master's level have fulfilled these functions in the past, nursing really has not excelled in this area. Most research, publishing, etc. had been done by the academics and not by the people who work in practice settings.

There has been a "theory-practice gap" in nursing for generations and we are now at a point where it is recognized that people in clinical practice environments need to be knowledgable about research processes, skilled at interpreting and applying the research and theoretical literature, and communicating their "experiential knowledge" to the world. Nurses in clinical practice environments need to elevate their level of partcipation in the scholarly dialog of the nursing discipline -- both as "receivers and appliers" of scholarly knowledge. We can't leave it all to those who work in schools of nursing -- and most Master's programs focus on clinical practice or education and tend to be weak in the areas of research and theory.

Hospitals are "joining" the evidence-based practice movement, establishing Research and Evidence-Based Practice Commttees, etc.. With DNP grads hitting the workforce, there will be even more people prepared to lead this advancement of practice -- this development of the scholarly aspect of practice. So, I believe we are in the early stages of transition into a new era for nurses in clinical practce environments -- and that there will be more employment opportunities for doctorally prepared nurses (DNP and PhD) in hospitals in the future.

To get those positions ... nurses will probably need (and SHOULD need) solid clinical experience as well as the doctoral degree. Credibilty is key and an "academic expert" will also need credibility in a clinical area in order to be accepted as an authority on practice. When working in a clinical practice setting, you always have to remember that the central focus of the enterprise is the delivery of high quality of care in a cost-efficient way. That always comes first. The scholarly goals always "play 2nd fiddle." The doctorally prepared nurse working for a hospital has to appreciate the importance of that and be willing to compromise and to partcipate in some of the more "mundane" and less scholarly aspect of running the institution.

Yes, I teach some orientation classes, proctor CPR testing sessions, serve as the "manager" for the extern program and see to it that their employment paperwork gets filed, etc. Sometimes, those less scholarly tasks get in the way of my personal scholarly goals. Often, the work I want to do most gets delayed or cancelled because the hospital has more pressing needs in its effort to deliver care. However, as someone who is very experienced in this sort of work, I recognize that these mundane tasks and hurdles that I must get over are the very things that keep me engaged in the practice arena and keep me "current" in what is happening in the actual practice world. Without that engagement in the actual business of practice, my scholarly work would become the "ivory tower" work of an academic who is detached from the real world -- thus undermining the whole point of clinical scholarship.

Don't get me wrong. I don't believe that all the work done in academia is detached, useless, or anything of the sort. I just believe that scholars who actually maintain a deep engagement in actual practice add something to nursing's knowledge base that cannot be added by someone who only works in academia. Nursing needs BOTH types of people and BOTH types of scholarly positions -- those who work in academia and focus on the university mission -- and also scholars who work in clinical practice settings who directly connect scholarship and practice.

Oh ... and by the way ... I don't get paid any more for my PhD. I am in a position that is funded as a Master's required position. While I would love a pay raise, I am OK with my current arrangement as my boss acknowledges the pay issue and "compensates" me by giving me more freedom and autonomy in my work. I appreciate that and make use of it to serve my needs in lieu of extra money. But I hope that as these types of roles become more common, a higher pay level will become the norm. At least I make more than I would have if I were working as a full time Assistant or Associate Professor on a 9 or 10 month contract. :-) And with my flexible work schedule, I can supplement my income by teaching a course or two per year at a local university. (I teach theory and research in a BSN completion program.) With all the online programs, it's realistic to think you can earn a little extra money that way -- or as an adjunct teaching an ocassional face-to-face classroom teaching for a local school.