Nurse Mentor

 Over the years, I've written a lot about pursuing a PhD in nursing and I'm including midwives because we need more PhD prepared midwives too.  Getting a PhD is a great way to address the problems you've seen on the frontlines of COVID-19, another way to address the social injustices of racism and discrimination on health outcomes, and to make your voice heard by the decision-makers. A third of the 1% of nurses with PhDs will retire in the next five years so we need people to take their place. We cannot lose our voices in all the places where nurses and midwives with PhDs work. Here's a compilation of the posts I've written about getting a PhD and the things to think about as you figure out where you want to apply. PhD or DNP?   This is where many people start when trying to decide on their doctoral-level career advancement. This post has my two cents on the topic. Should you work as a nurse before getting a PhD?   There's a lot of opinions out there on this sub

The stories I hear from my colleagues in academia with kids living at home are something else, especially if they are young. For those on tenure track, the pressure to succeed in the face of such uncertainty is staggering. Some places, like my home university, have extended tenure clocks for those who may need it and have mobilized support groups. There will be, of course, the inevitable faculty members who simply can't understand why non-tenured faculty on research tracks with children living at home are struggling so much. After all, in their day they did not have all the legal provisions and extra protections that young faculty have today. Or just put the kids on a schedule! Scheduling is the key to success in everything! Sound familiar?  Wouldn't you like those folks to see how working and homeschooling goes if their grandkids or grand nieces and nephews came over and spent a week with them? Faculty who think that way are thinking from a highly privileged place. No one

I've taught in nursing programs for 19 years now. I have had the privilege of supporting both male and female nurses alike at all levels, from the frontline provider through the faculty level.  During that time, I've noticed one key difference between male and female* nurses .  Male nurses ask to be nominated for various opportunities. Women wait to be recognized. There is no reason for this to happen. Those of us in positions to nominate people for opportunities or recognition should be more mindful of working toward a gender balance in our nomination practices. Our potential nominees also need to ask to be nominated. Don't think you aren't ready. Don't wait to be recognized.  Ask.  Sometimes people don't nominate you because they aren't aware of your work or accomplishments. Find people who will nominate you even when others say "you aren't ready." Asking to be nominated for awards is not being egotistical. It's saying the wor

Many faculty positions require a post-doc, but actually doing one isn't feasible for everyone. There are a lot of reasons not to do a post-doc. Here's a few core ones. It's Not Financially Feasible Post-doc salaries aren't always great. The minimum salary is $45,000. For many people who have already sacrificed for many years to finish their PhD, it's not possible to continue the sacrifice. Full time employment that capitalizes on the PhD credential may be the only alternative. It May Not Be Good for Career Progression, Depending on Your Age Nurses and midwives complete doctoral degrees at many ages. Candidates need to ask themselves if spending two more years in a post-doc is the right career move. Academic nursing, in particular, can have many career forms and depending on your life stage and goals, going right into a faculty position is a perfectly viable option. Programs of research can still be developed with this pathway through both internal and

Your patient satisfaction scores went up by two points this month. YAY! Your patient satisfaction scores went down three points the following month. Boo! Those monthly scores feel like an emotional roller coaster, right? Then you add on all the other relevant quality outcome measures your employer has decided are important and it can get even more crazy and complex. Depending on your manager, they either take them very seriously or they understand the complexities of measuring patient outcomes.  How do we handle all the new data coming at us more sanely?  Here's a solution. Statistical Process Control.   What is it? Here's a generally agreed upon definition: Statistical process control  (SPC) is a method of quality  control  which employs  statistical  methods to monitor and  control  a  process . This helps to ensure that the  process  operates efficiently, producing more specification-conforming products with less waste (rework or scrap). What SPC does is it tells

In 2019, we started a conversation about doing a Post-Doc (or not) . Life happens and so now I'm circling back to continue the conversation in 2020. A post-doctoral fellowship, for nursing, is an additional two to three years of training after you finish your PhD. A post-doc can be a great opportunity to build additional skills and expand your network of mentors. For example, if you did a qualitative dissertation then building your quantitative skills as they relate to your dissertation work is a logical next step in developing your program of research. A post-doc is also the perfect time to publish. Highly competitive candidates for faculty positions at top schools typically have between 5 and 10 publications resulting from their post-doc, sometimes more. To meet that goal, it is an ideal opportunity to go back to your papers that you wrote during your doctoral coursework and see which ones can be developed into papers.  Papers that demonstrate collaboration with your post

One of the biggest reasons why new nurses leave their first jobs is the culture around how mistakes are handled.  No one wants to work feeling like they can never make a mistake. In fact, most nurses are hyper-aware of the potential of making a mistake and the consequences to patients. We also know that nurses often catch mistakes before they become problematic, yet those rarely get rewarded. A punitive culture around errors is a by-product of both paternalism and maternalism. It is the parental like approach of punishment for the mistake, yet it is often the system that sets the nurse up for mistakes. Good systems look at the root causes of the mistakes and acknowledge that the person who committed the error has probably punished themselves enough. There's a healthy literature about nurses catching mistakes before they happen  and a growing body of literature on nurse surveillance for catching problems before they happen.  Essentially, the evidence is growing about how nurses

In the last week, I've done more nursing for non-family members than I have in several years. I left hospital practice twelve years ago to focus on research and teaching the next generation of nurses. I suspect there are many nurses out there like me who can contribute in non-traditional ways. Here's some guiding principles for helping reduce public fear and panic and help people be proactive in their self and family care. 1. Evidence-based practice : The CDC is the best source for COVID-19 information as well as the World Health Organization. Neither has a political agenda to advance so you can trust what's reported there. This is critically important for dispelling disinformation about the disease and death rates. 2. Be consistent your information on social media : The more consistently you calmly respond to people's anxiety and fears on social media, they will calm down and make better decisions. We all know that people in crisis make poor decisions and lash ou

Information Is Beautiful is a data visualization company. They've developed some really helpful infographics about the COVID-19 epidemic and how it affects people. There's good news in there too - most people recover. Check out the graphics here .

In case you haven't heard, 2020 is the Year of the Nurse and Midwife as declared by the World Health Organization (WHO)!  This is the first time WHO has taken this action. They chose to do this to help increase support and recognition for nurses and midwives around the world.  Later this year they will also release the state of the world's nursing and midwifery report which will tell us a lot about our colleagues in every country around the world. What's also really cool is we have a way to connect with our colleagues around the world through Nursing Now!, a non-profit organization based in the United Kingdom that is spearheading the global movement to build youth leadership in our profession, make nurses and midwives more visible, and help us all connect together. You can learn more about and join the movement here .

Emergency preparedness nurse expert Tener Veneema, PhD, RN, FAAN provides a great overview for nurses and midwives about the coronavirus COVID-19.

Over the last ten years, this blog continues to generate traffic so we are back in 2020 to highlight key issues around developing your nursing career and other hot topics related to the profession in the US and abroad. Here's some popular topics from past posts based on the 52,000+ visitors who have found it. Getting your PhD in Nursing  - There are four posts in this series so be sure to check them all out. The Post-Doc Question The Faculty Search Process Loan Repayment Mentoring is about supporting people in their career development and facing the day to day issues of their career. I hope you find this blog useful!

Developing a country's ability to produce nurses as well as grow research led by nurses is an important component of building health system capacity overall. For many nurses who see an academic or policy career path in their future, studying for a PhD is an important career step. If your a nurse who wants to do a PhD in the United States (US), here's some helpful advice to make your application as strong as possible and answer some common questions applicants have when developing their applications. To begin, prospective students may wish to review previous blog posts I've written about applying for a PhD more broadly. These include choosing a program , family considerations , and finances . One thing that is really important for an international student to understand is the difference between a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and a PhD in Nursing. Faculty with a DNP and no PhD are not allowed to serve as primary mentors when obtaining a PhD. This is because most DNPs