Welcome to becoming a Nurse Scholar

In nursing school, you learned that nursing practice is based on evidence. Some of the evidence that supports nursing practice is based on tradition (think about why nurses in the past performed daily bed baths for all patients or applied heat immediately following a soft tissue injury). Nurse scientists generate evidence through conducting research that provides the justification to continue or change nursing practice. 

 Becoming a nurse scientist, like becoming a nurse, involves a process of socialization into the role (Conway, 1992 in a seminal work). There are both formal and informal ways that this happens. The first formal way is knowledge acquisition through coursework. PhD programs in nursing, like most other fields, are not accredited as they are considered terminal degrees. Despite this, there are common sets of courses in theory and knowledge development, research methods, statistics, and often cognate courses (courses that are specific to the area of focus of the dissertation). 

Pursuing advanced nursing education is a deliberate commitment  you made to shape  the profession’s future. It is more than earning a degree—it is a pathway to discovering, generating, and applying evidence that advances nursing science, informs practice, and improves patient outcomes.  As you continue your journey, your growing knowledge base forms the foundation for building the competence needed to create meaningful contributions to nursing knowledge, science and practice.

 At this stage, you will need to conduct an honest self-assessment of the things you are good at, the things you need to improve and experiences you’ll need engage in in order to become a nurse scientist. An honest self-assessment is challenging for most of us because as Stephen King says “We lie best when we lie to ourselves.” Developing this skill of being objective or truthful in assessing your skills and areas for growth will benefit your future trajectory as a nurse scholar. 

 Obtaining a PhD or doctoral research degree (e.g. DNS) involves changes in the way you think about the world, and these changes may cause feelings of fear, doubt, vulnerability, and anxiety. During your education for these terminal degrees, you begin to realize how little you actually know and how much of your current knowledge is based on tradition or what someone else told you is true. You may notice fears, doubts, or vulnerabilities creeping into your thinking. 

  The Cost of Perfection: Struggles of the Academic Nurse Scientist

Nurses are often known as high achievers—expert clinicians, leaders, and problem-solvers who “go the extra mile.” Many nurses pursue doctoral education and move into roles as faculty and nurse scientists, where they suddenly feel under a microscope. The feeling that every paper, lecture, slide deck, or grant must withstand relentless scrutiny can become paralyzing rather than productive, sometimes termed “paralysis through analysis”. This “pursuit of success” can, in reality, begin to limit your productivity. 

Recognize what you need and then accept the guidance and support of mentors, peers, and students to help you develop into an educator, researcher, and leader. You are going to struggle if you try to do it alone.

 Identify and specify the ultimate goal of your science: how will your science positively impact nursing care and the health of who we care for?  These activities are to constantly remind you why you are pursuing this journey toward being a successful academician.  

Playing the long game in becoming a nurse academician involves periodically revisiting the major goal for your science. The major goal of your science will likely evolve over your career and will cause a realignment of your day-to-day work.   

Becoming a successful nurse academician requires intentionally and strategically developing new skills while building on the skills you already have.  These new skills may include teaching, giving presentations, scholarly writing, generating evidence (research skills), leading and working within groups, mentorship, and university and professional service. Intentionally developing skills involves purposeful engagement in new and novel experiences that expand your competency as an academician. 

Periodically devote time to a strategic evaluation and planning session for your progress toward your goals. The time frame for when to do this depends on several factors: your career stage (when more frequent evaluation may need to occur for early career researchers); your life circumstances (e.g. where the needs of your personal life may take precedence); and your external environment (e.g. funding priorities change, leadership within your institution no longer supports your program of research and others). 

For this strategic evaluation and planning session, you will want to review the goals that you set and your progress toward them. 

 Recognize You Will Need to Continue to Seek Out New Experiences That Will Contribute to Achieving Your Goals

Oh, the places you will go….

As a senior nurse scientist, it is impossible to look back without seeing a landscape filled with experiences, people, and moments that shaped a scholarly path far richer than anything first imagined. Each milestone—successful and challenging—feels like a word in a much larger word cloud of opportunities, relationships, and risks taken. In many ways, it is hard not to think of Dr. Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go! and the wide-open possibilities that await an emerging nurse scientist.

The previous 11 steps have positioned you to emerge as a scholar with publications, presentations, funded projects and recognition through awards and invitations. This means you have learned to speak and write the language of a nurse scholar, and you are generating evidence to support and improve patient care and outcomes.

I will commonly ask scholars at this point in their development “What is the most important thing in your life?” Some scholars will reply with “My family….being happy…..my faith…my health and the health of my loved ones….my dog.” While other scholars have responded with “I’ve published 35 manuscripts…. I am leading an interdisciplinary NIH funded project…..I was just awarded tenure… I was just recognized as the organization’s outstanding researcher.” Which of these two groups of scholars would you consider successful? (hint: it’s a rhetorical question you should already know the answer to)