Those who are called to begin a career in nursing may wonder if they can go further in their studies in the profession after they have finished their undergraduate careers, and indeed many registered nurses have made the decision to go into nursing education at a more advanced level.
A Ph.D. in Nursing is a doctoral degree focused on research that is one of the profession’s highest possible degrees and primarily ensures that nurses are prepared for careers either in research or nursing education, it can also be helpful in preparing them for private practice or administrative positions.
Some nurses may have decided to take an advanced degree early on in their nursing careers, maybe even before they have entered into the workforce, but the great majority of nurses who take Ph.D. courses have chosen to take online courses later at institutions like Wilkes University as a way to gain advanced credentials on a schedule of their own making.
Having a Ph.D. in Nursing can help to establish an individual as a respected authority and can make a huge difference in the nursing field both at the current time and in years to come. Someone who holds a doctorate degree in nursing means that they will be on the same playing field with other medical professionals that have been educated to a doctorate level, and also means that they will be treated as having the same value on any team of caregivers. A Ph.D in Nursing salary is also inevitably higher than for those who do not have the degree.
New nurses and even nurses who have been working for a few years can sometimes wonder who it is that makes up the nursing diagnoses, procedures, and rules that they have to follow, and the answer is nurse researchers who have been educated to a Ph.D. level.
Nurse researchers are the ones who undertake the scientific research that is required to improve hospital care practices all over the country. They are often asked to advise lawmakers in regard to potential changes to policy, while helping to advance the nursing field as a whole.
There is currently a shortage of qualified practitioners in the nursing field, and one of the main reasons for this is there is a lack of nurse educators who can teach them. Nursing schools all over the United States have been struggling to recruit and retain enough qualified nurses to be able to keep their accreditations, so someone with a Ph.D. in Nursing can also help to offer hundreds of students a way into the nursing profession when they may otherwise never have the opportunity to do so.
A Ph.D. can also help those who would like to take on an administrative role, imparting the kind of management and leadership skills required in a nurse administrator, and the nursing perspective is increasingly valued by the healthcare community within every level of organizations.
Nurse practitioners may even decide to open their own practice, and while the MSN is currently all that is required to do so a Ph.D. is of greater value.
A Ph.D. in Nursing can take an individual all the way to the top of the nursing profession.