PhD Nurses in Clinical Settings

llg, PhD, RN · Mar 24, 2017

I am generally happy with my position in Nursing Professional Development -- working mostly on hospital-wide educational programs and quality improvement projects. What do you want to know?

MurseJJ · Mar 24, 2017

I'm interested in this as well. I'm very interested having a career that allows both research time and clinical practice time (considering ACNP in the future). I've read about one PhD prepared RN that practices as an ICU RN and does clinical research. Wondering how common this is (whether clinical practice is as a bedside RN or NP).

elkpark · Mar 24, 2017

I don't have a doctorate myself, but I've known quite a few doctorally-prepared RNs who continued to practice clinically. A good friend of mine, now retired, has a PhD and taught, but also continued to work part-time or prn over the years as a psych nurse. Most of the faculty in my graduate program maintained part-time clinical practices. A friend of mine with a PhD just retired last year from working full-time in a clinical role at the large academic medical center at which I work. There are lots of people "out there," doing lots of different things.

My personal opinion (based on my experiences over the years) is that the best faculty and researchers are those who maintain some ongoing connection to clinical practice.

gM_2010, MSN, PhD, RN, NP · Mar 25, 2017

I have a PhD and am also an NP and faculty at a university. The PhD is a research degree intended to develop nurse scientists who have the requisite skills to develop new knowledge. When you go to a PhD program, the message is.. get a tenure track position and do research. It took me a couple years to figure out I still like making a direct impact on people with chronic disease as an NP-not necessarily compatible with a full time "all in" research career. Another consideration is that these days-it takes a postdoc fellowship after the PhD to secure a tenure track position at a research intensive university.

I work in a clinic and like the opportunity of directly impacting the health of patients & families AND getting source material for my research and scholarship. The NP may be easier to do as part or before you you finish the PhD.

It all really boils down to want you want professionally.

Good luck!

Advanced Practice Columnist / Guide · Mar 25, 2017

I work in a hospital setting as an ACNP. Though I don't have a doctoral degree myself, there are a number of nurses at our institution with PhD's and majority of them come from a CNS background. They hold director positions in our institution's nursing research, nursing quality and safety, and things of that sort. We have a strong partnership with the university's school of nursing and the Joanna Briggs Institute. These PhD nurses are generally no longer doing any direct patient care activities. As far as NP's with DNP, we have a few of them and some have appointments as volunteer clinical faculty at the school of nursing.

ShayRN0217 · Mar 27, 2017

I'm interested in this as well. I'm very interested having a career that allows both research time and clinical practice time (considering ACNP in the future). I've read about one PhD prepared RN that practices as an ICU RN and does clinical research. Wondering how common this is (whether clinical practice is as a bedside RN or NP).

Yes, exactly...this is what I would like to know!

Thank you for all of your replies. It has opened my understanding to various options.

llg, PhD, RN · Mar 27, 2017

I should have added to my previous post ...

I have a friend who is an NNP with a PhD. Her full time job at the moment is to teach. But she continues to work per diem as an NNP. She also does some research.

MurseJJ · Apr 12, 2017

Bumping this, interested in any other thoughts/experiences.