PhD Nursing... thinking about it

Hi and congrats on your progress for your MSN!

I'm currently writing my dissertation for my PhD and can speak to some of your questions. I didn't find the course work to be much different from my Master's courses, just a lot more writing and statistics. The faculty at my school are supportive and if you put in a good effort, will more than meet you half way. I have had the opportunity to conduct research and publish with them.

The coursework took me three years (full time) and it looks as though my dissertation will take about 18 months to complete. Some of that is because I got lazy this semester and procrastinated writing my proposal...so that's all on me. Your dissertation research design, motivation levels, and work requirements will dictate how long it takes you to finish.

I have a chance to do a post-doc at a well know school of nursing/research center, so I am excited for that! I hope to work as a researcher when all is said and done.

Best of luck to you, what ever you choose to do!

Thank you!

I am in dissertation in a BSN to PhD program. In my program, I had to take 5-6 courses from the MSN-Education program, a couple from the DNP program and the rest from the PhD program so I have had an opportunity to compare.

My PhD courses in general have been much more independent and I was able to select a topic that was relevant to my area of research interest. For example, in my theory course we had to write a 3-part concept analysis on whatever concept we thought might be helpful to our future research. I have definitely drawn from that old project for my dissertation, especially chapter two. I think I could have been more independent but I needed a little more direction.

The work for my MSN courses was not nearly as challenging and I considered that coursework my "break" while I labored over the PhD coursework that took so much more time. Honestly, I didn't see a huge difference from the assignments I had done for BSN (that I had just finished a year before). Now, to be fair, I was not required to take the 3Ps (patho, pharm, and physical assessment) and I heard those courses were very intense.

On 3/28/2019 at 10:47 AM, Caprica6 said:

Hi and congrats on your progress for your MSN!

I'm currently writing my dissertation for my PhD and can speak to some of your questions. I didn't find the course work to be much different from my Master's courses, just a lot more writing and statistics. The faculty at my school are supportive and if you put in a good effort, will more than meet you half way. I have had the opportunity to conduct research and publish with them.

The coursework took me three years (full time) and it looks as though my dissertation will take about 18 months to complete. Some of that is because I got lazy this semester and procrastinated writing my proposal...so that's all on me. Your dissertation research design, motivation levels, and work requirements will dictate how long it takes you to finish.

I have a chance to do a post-doc at a well know school of nursing/research center, so I am excited for that! I hope to work as a researcher when all is said and done.

Best of luck to you, what ever you choose to do!

Where are you in school if you don't mind my asking?

On 9/29/2019 at 11:29 AM, Jada Love Thompson said:

Where are you in school if you don't mind my asking?

I'm *still* writing my dissertation...this has proven to be an exercise in patience...lol

22 hours ago, Caprica6 said:

I'm *still* writing my dissertation...this has proven to be an exercise in patience...lol

My chair contends that a PhD is above everything else a degree in persistence. The last couple of years are a real exercise in patience as you feel you are so so close for so long and then all of a sudden, it's done.