Nurse Researcher

llg, PhD, RN · Nov 17, 2014

It depends on what type of research you want to do and at what level. Do you want to be the principle investigator of your own research projects? If so, then you should aim for a PhD -- but there are some nurses with only Master's Degrees who direct their own projects. If you want to be a member of a team helping a principle investigator with their projects, a BSN is ofter sufficient, though I have seen several of those positions filled by people with MSN's. It's a very fluid field and there are many different pathways to becoming involved in research.

You could also go an entirely different route and switch your major out of nursing entirely. You could become a bio-statistician and help all kinds of researchers in many different disciplines with their statistics.

nursingstudent2018 · Nov 17, 2014

Thank you for your help! I am still very confused on what I want to do. I am not sure I even want to pursue my nursing degree anymore. How do you become a bio-statiscan? And what exactly is it?

llg, PhD, RN · Nov 17, 2014

A bio-statistician is a mathematician who specializes in statistics related to the health care field, biology, etc. It's a math major. Do an internet search.

Hospitals, universities, drug companies, etc. hire such people to be in charge of the statistics in research studies.

If you really don't know what type of work you want to do "when you grow up" -- then I strongly suggest that you take a leave of absence from school for a bit while you pursue your career options. Perhaps do some volunteering and/or get a job to save up some money to help pay for school. It would be a shame to spend big bucks on courses you will never use should you decide to switch majors. And if you use up all of your financial aid eligibility on a nursing degree and then decide not to be a nurse, you may find that the cost of getting a second degree (with no financial aid eligibility left) is so big that your student loans may get huge and financially cripple you for decades.

nursingstudent2018 · Nov 19, 2014

Thank you so much for all of your advice! Leaving school is not an option for me. I have decided next semester I will be taking more core classes that are still required for nursing but could transfer into any other degree. I am exploring my options. I love babies and that is originally why I wanted to be a NICU nurse but I just feel that nursing is not for me anymore.