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...

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 ...

From the latest  US nursing workforce report from the Health Research Services Administration in the US, this striking graph should get more attention.  The plunging pass rates of internationally educated nurses (IEN) on the NCLEX-RN exam have big implications for global health workforce policy. The first thing you need to know is that the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) changed the format and content of the NCLEX-RN exam in 2008.  The test designers added new testing methods that better validate the actual knowledge, skills, and abilities of internationally educated candidates.  This also occurred during growing global outcry of high income countries contributing to "brain drain" in low and middle-income countries.  The impact of the change on internationally educated nurses is clear and has reduced the number of viable candidates who would be eligible for practice in the US. At the same time, NCSBN data also show that the overall nu...