PhD/NP advice

[chicoborja]

I am posting in hopes of soliciting some feedback from clinical nurse practioners and if possible any nurse practiioners with PhDs. I am currently a second year grad student in an unrelated program. Beginning in the Fall I plan in enrolling in the minimum grad hrs to be considered a full-time student (9 hrs) while simultaneously pursuing an ADN at my local community college (10 hrs/semester). My plan is to graduate with ADN in Spring '08 to get licensed as an RN and the following year (Spring '09) to graduate with a PhD in Speech and Hearing Science. My goal is to pursue an MSN Nurse Practioner program following completion of the PhD. Now that you have some background, I would like to ask two questions

(1) Am I getting in way over my head with doing 9 grad hrs (PhD) and 10 undergrad hrs (nursing) simultaneously? Additonal notes include: I have a 5 year old daughter that spends three nights a week with me, need to work part-time while in school, and ADN program is 30 minutes away. The ADN program requires me to be there 4 days per week mainly just from early morning until early/mid-afternoon. I am a procrastinator but also one of the top students in my dept's program. Additonally, I have worked as a pharmacy technician for the past 4½ years (also took course in pharm nursing dept at university doin PhD at) so pharmacology is not a problem for me. I dont have a problem writing papers but would likely be annoyed by nursing theory/diag/care plans.

(2) My goal is to be a nurse practioner in ENT but cannot in ENT then in neuro or neurosurg. I would like to collaborate with physicians to do clinical research in field. My question is : is it unlikely that a physician would want to do research when not associated with a med school and with not being compensated for it? If they did not want to do research, how likely is it that they would tolerate me doin it within their clinic assuming it did not take up significant time from my work? Lastly, do university nursing programs frown upon NPs having PhDs in non-nursing areas as opposed to nursing?

Sorry my post is so long and thanks in advance for your responses

Mark

[Gennaver, MSN]

I am posting in hopes of soliciting some feedback from clinical nurse practioners and if possible any nurse practiioners with PhDs. ...

Sorry my post is so long and thanks in advance for your responses

Mark

Hi Mark,

I see no replies yet, so I hope a reply from a fellow student is okay. :)

I am currently enrolled in a Master's entry to Nursing program and have had somewhat related questions to your. I would be willing to share some of what I have 'heard' and my take on how I hope to follow through.

My interests are also varied, I would like to work in both clinical practice and in research, (scholarly work).

One school told me that -no- the PhD and the NP are not compatable. You are right, hold on, "So who cares?" Why not do both.

It was suggested to go for the DNS or DNP but, like you, the prospect of generating new knowledge to apply to this field that I admire so much is a strong pull.

What I have concluded on so far, is to complete the MSN/RN and then while working to go ahead and work towards the PhD and when that is over (all the while working as an RN) to then begin to advance my clinical work to a Nurse Practitioner.

Why not create your own format too? Good luck and congratulations.

Gennaver

p.s. one of my professors recently shared in class that she too was following her own career path with duality through her advance nursing degrees, (really, she is right too, why not?) As the professor says, "It can only make me-her- a better practitioner!"

p.p.s. another result of my deciding to try to earn the PhD in nursing is that I finally put to bed, (or just into hibernation) my hope to work towards an MSW too