Potential PhD applicant advice

saheckler, PhD, RN · Feb 1, 2021

Hi there,

I think this doctoral thread might be really helpful to you (I wrote a very long winded response about my experiences in my PhD program, some of which may be helpful to you, and there are many other comments there that may provide insight that you're looking for here):

To answer your questions:

1.) I did research with a professor at a school of public health for a year before I applied, and I authored one publication through this experience. I think this really gave me an edge when I applied because not every applicant has research experience. The way I got this experience was by reaching out to a research assistant at a research center within the school of nursing and school of public health at my alma mater (I stayed local after graduation). I asked if he'd be willing to meet with me to tell me more about the center and what he does, etc. He met with me and connected me with the director of the center, who emailed all the center faculty and asked if anyone would like to work with me (I was willing to put in several hours a week as a free research assistant for the experience). I would highly recommend this if you can. I also had experience as a project manager for a research project that was going on at my work and did a poster presentation on an intervention I piloted at work. I think these experiences were also very helpful and gave me an edge when I applied to programs. Anything you can get involved with that is research related will help you, both in gaining admission and in preparing you for the program. Get creative and think about how you can frame your professional experiences in your application in a research context -- maybe you've done things professionally that have given you skills that would transfer well to research, or that have given you a passion for a particular research area or question. Those are all good things to put in an application.

2.) In terms of daily life as a PhD student, I think this can be variable from program to program. I'm a full time PhD student (usually only full time students get free tuition and a stipend). I unfortunately have a really unhealthy work life balance and work pretty extreme hours. It is definitely not self-paced because our funding ends at the end of our 3rd year, at which point our stipend stops and we have to pay tuition, so there is a rush to finish in 3 years. Public health PhDs are done in more like 4-5 years, and that's often with a master's in public health going in so they have a head start -- my point here is that nursing typically squeezes a PhD into a very short time frame, and the pace can be grueling. Theoretically, after students finish the required coursework and are in dissertation phase they could slow the pace a bit, but typically you're not in dissertation phase until at least 1.5-2 years into the program, so your first 1.5-2 years would still be at a fast pace regardless. It's possible to buy yourself more time by getting a grant, such as an F31 from the NIH, which is excellent preparation for a career in academia, but grant writing is a very intense and time-consuming process on top of an already intense program.

A part time PhD program may offer better work life balance (I'm not sure because I don't know much about part time programs), but there may be cons to part time -- it's likely that you'd have to pay for tuition, wouldn't get a stipend, and it might be harder to take advantage of all the same opportunities and mentorship that you would get as a full time student -- and the experiences outside the classroom are just as important, if not more important, than coursework. I think that if we really want to boost the number of PhD prepared nurses, we have to start making PhD programs more accessible by making part time programs more viable and attractive for people because many nurses get their PhD after years of working professionally and often can't do a full time program because we may have more responsibilities financially and personally than a 22 year old right out of undergrad. I think it's certainly possible to get an excellent PhD education part time or full time; you just may want to think about the relative pros and cons and how they apply to you personally and how each fits with your goals and life, etc.

Also, I do want to point out that I do know of nurses who have done PhD programs with young children at home, or who have been pregnant during part of their program or their post-doctoral fellowship, etc. I don't know a whole lot about their experiences, but it certainly can be done! Being a parent may also help you keep things in perspective, and maybe you will find that after being a parent, a PhD doesn't seem so tough after all!

3.) My program is fully funded for 3 years; most programs that offer full funding seem to offer it anywhere from 2-4 years from what I've seen. I have never come across a nursing PhD program that offered funding for part time PhD students (but maybe they do exist?) So, I think you would have to do some calculating to see what the costs would be -- even if you have to pay tuition for a part time program, if you are also able to work part time throughout your program, you may still be in a better place financially than if you were fully funded in a full time PhD program, just because stipends are so low (the typical stipend in nursing seems to be $25,000 per year or less). For example, if your annual tuition and fees cost $30,000, if you could make at least $55,000 a year working part time then you would be just as well off financially as if you were a full time student with a $25,000 stipend and free tuition, so depending on what you make and what your tuition and fees would cost at the schools you apply to, it might be worth it.

Another thing to consider is that because nursing PhD programs are typically squeezed into a short time period (3-4 years rather than 4-5 or even longer), there is a big push for nursing PhD grads to do a 1-2 year post doctoral fellowship after graduation, to help make up for the fact that even with an accelerated pace, you can only squeeze so much into a 3 year program. Usually in a "post doc" you would make a much more reasonable salary than a PhD student stipend (I think somewhere around $50,000 a year typically, although there are a few, such as maybe the VA, that offer more). But, this is nowhere near what most RNs make, so it's an additional one to two years of making a comparatively low salary, which can be an added financial burden. The necessity of a post doc depends somewhat on your career goals too -- if you want to be at a teaching intensive university rather than a top ranking R1 research intensive university, you may not need to do a post doc. It's also possible to get a faculty position at a high ranking university right out of the PhD program, especially if you've secured NIH grant funding, published a lot, won awards, etc. I'm planning to do a post doc because I think I will need and want that extra time to learn more research skills and publish more so I'm better prepared for the next step.

I hope that I'm not discouraging you with all this, but I think it's important that people really know what they're getting into when they start a PhD. I have struggled with work life balance and am feeling a bit disillusioned with academia. It can be a toxic environment with absurd expectations in terms of productivity and work hours. However, there are many people who figure out how to manage their time well and who find a good work life balance and who are productive and successful while still keeping nights and weekends for themselves. I have struggled with this (I'm at a top school of nursing, which I think adds to the stress and pressure) so please take my perspective with a grain of salt. I would say that when you apply to programs, do everything you can to make sure that the program has a supportive environment, values collaboration over competition, and values work life balance. Personally, I would also stay away from schools that don't offer full funding for full time students (even if you decide to go part time and they don't have funding for part time students), not only for the financial benefit, but because funding is another indicator of how willing the school is to invest in their students in other ways too.

A PhD program can be really exciting and invigorating and can provide opportunities to make a huge impact with research. There is a big shortage of nurses with PhDs and we need more nursing research, more nurses' voices being heard and nurses with a seat at the table in policymaking and health-related organizations, and we need a next generation of nursing faculty to teach! If you are excited about research and academia, then go for it! Just make sure that you really do your research on the programs you apply to and that you know what you are getting into -- that will really help you choose a program that's a good fit. I think it's all going to work out for me in the end, but if I could go back in time I would not have chosen my current program, even though there are many positive aspects to it.

I hope this helps and please reply or DM me if you have more questions. It's hard to find nurses with PhDs and nurses in PhD programs to talk to when you're thinking about applying or in the application process because we're so few and far between, so I'm happy to help -- a lot of PhD students really went above and beyond to help me out so I'd love to be able to pay it forward (I think that is one extremely wonderful thing about nursing academia -- my experience has been the opposite of the "eat our young" phenomenon; nurses in academia at all stages have been so incredibly generous about helping to pave the way for me and others).

Good luck!

NewUtahn · Feb 8, 2021

Thank you SO much for this!! I'm going to DM you

Dr. CP · Feb 14, 2021

Hi! Congratulations on taking the step to explore advancing your education! I earned my PhD in 2015 after 6 long years of being in the program. I had young children and teenagers at the time and was already employed in a high level leadership position. Needless to say, when it came time to do the independent work (after I completed all my courses and defended my proposal) that's when I really struggled. I allowed all my fears and doubts of succeeding prevent me from moving faster under the pretense of my busy family life and stressful work schedule. Truly. I was afraid of actually succeeding and all the implications surrounding it. It's funny how the mind works. But if this is what you want, you will succeed. I did. Once I got over my limiting mindset (which was a daily exercise by the way), I successfully defended my dissertation and walked across the stage to receive my diploma during the hooding ceremony.

To answer some of your questions, I had a Masters degree in Education going in and my thesis was approved as my original research. When I decided to apply, my husband and I sat down with our kids and told them Dad was going to start cooking and to help him. My husband discovered his love for cooking during that time and he's been the household cook ever since! And my kids loved that we could do homework together. It inspired them. As for directors' preferences for similar research goals, it was true to a certain extent. But what they emphasized more was research that was patient-centered and not nurse-centered.

I wish you the best of luck!