Nursing Research Experience??

Nurses General Nursing

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Dear All,

I am planning on getting my second degree in nursing, and intend on pursuing research/teaching. how would an accelerated student go about getting experience when applying for msn/PhD programs? are there electives available in nursing school (like can you run a case study) while doing your preceptorship/practicum? or is doing a post-bac at the NIH, for example, more realistic? thanks for the input :)

Sincerely,

Katie Stone

Specializes in M/S, MICU, CVICU, SICU, ER, Trauma, NICU.

Are you planning on just research? Because "teaching" will require clinical experience--if you don't have that, you won't have credibility--plus any clinical teaching will require some sort of clinical experience ASIDE from school.

Specializes in Gerontology, nursing education.
Are you planning on just research? Because "teaching" will require clinical experience--if you don't have that, you won't have credibility--plus any clinical teaching will require some sort of clinical experience ASIDE from school.

ITA. Additionally, it will be easier for you to understand, disseminate and create nursing research if you have some sort of clinical experience as an RN. Aside from the professional credibility issue, you can't expect to do meaningful nursing research that will be relevant in nursing practice unless you have a foundation in clinical practice yourself.

When you get into a MSN program, you can work as a research assistant to the doctorally-prepared professors who are working on their own projects. It IS possible, though not necessarily a good idea, to go into a master's program without clinical experience. I would not recommend that route for anyone because you do need to have some clinical expertise and current clinical knowledge to teach, even if you're teaching theory courses rather than clinicals. There are many threads that discuss this subject, so you may wish to check out a few of them.

Specializes in Neurology.

Duke has some graduate level Research classes worked into their ABSN program, but yeah, you will need to get some experience prior to your MSN

Specializes in M/S, MICU, CVICU, SICU, ER, Trauma, NICU.
ITA. Additionally, it will be easier for you to understand, disseminate and create nursing research if you have some sort of clinical experience as an RN. Aside from the professional credibility issue, you can't expect to do meaningful nursing research that will be relevant in nursing practice unless you have a foundation in clinical practice yourself.

When you get into a MSN program, you can work as a research assistant to the doctorally-prepared professors who are working on their own projects. It IS possible, though not necessarily a good idea, to go into a master's program without clinical experience. I would not recommend that route for anyone because you do need to have some clinical expertise and current clinical knowledge to teach, even if you're teaching theory courses rather than clinicals. There are many threads that discuss this subject, so you may wish to check out a few of them.

I knew one nurse who went to her MSN (before there was a 3 year minimum requirement) and decided she was going to teach. She brought the students around and was tryng to teach them the "theory" behind placing an NGT. I felt very embarrassed for her when one of her students asked her if she had ever put one in, and she said. "No."

The silence was deafening.

Getting a post-bac IRTA at the NIH is really competitive but if you can get in I'd highly recommend it! I did an IRTA internship this past summer (as an undergrad) and it's a fabulous experience!

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