A PhD in Nursing can be a gateway to prestigious opportunities

A nursing career can be diverse; it provides occupations that range from simple clinical roles to management-oriented positions, as well as research and education. There are also many different employment opportunities, which present an array of different avenues for higher education and skill development. Graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) is not the end of the road in a nursing career. If you need to open the door to different career advancement opportunities, you must earn a Ph.D. in nursing.

Advancing your nursing career

BSN graduates usually become registered and licensed nurses after earning their bachelor’s degree. Certainly, the rate of career progression will slow after achieving a few professional certifications and amassing several years of experience. Pursuing a path to earn a Ph.D. in nursing can close the gap between the needs of patients, and the capacity of nurses to tend to those needs. As such, you should endeavor to improve your career satisfaction as a nurse if you need to advance your clinical skill set.

A Ph.D. in Nursing provides an avenue for nurses to conduct intensive research that can possibly lead to medical breakthroughs. The Ph.D. program for nursing began in the 1960s with a focus on theory development, research, and health policy. A PhD-educated nurse has an overall goal of uncovering, utilizing, and developing new scientific approaches to promote changes in patient care. As a nursing Ph.D. graduate, you are qualified to work as an educator, clinical service director, and a research nurse, among other positions.

What can you do with a PhD in nursing? Well, the opportunities are unlimited; most importantly, you’ll make a significant difference in the field of nursing, and you will also become a respected authority.

Here are some more benefits you can reap from earning this credential:

1. You’ll be in a position to influence healthcare practice and policy

If you’ve been through nursing school, or you’ve already accumulated a few years of experience in nursing, you may have wondered who made up all the nursing procedures, rules, and diagnoses you were taught to follow. Don’t be surprised to learn that this was achieved by nurse researchers that have earned or are in the process of earning a Ph.D. degree.

PhD-educated nurse researchers obtain scientific data that is necessary to improve care practices in medical facilities across the country; for instance, nurse researchers discovered that a 5% drop in patient mortality after surgery is achieved by a 10% increase in nursing staff leads (PhD-educated). This influences the hiring policies for national hospital nurses. The PhD-educated nurse researchers are responsible for advancing the nursing field as a whole, and they also advise lawmakers about potential policy changes.

1. You’ll be an acknowledged and respected expert

Nursing follows a different approach to medicine than doctors and other educated practitioners. However, popular wisdom holds that “people who decide to go to nursing school do so because they don’t have the interest to attend medical school.” With a Ph.D. degree in nursing, you’ll be in a position to hold your own among other key medical professionals. You will also be highly valued on any medical care team as other learned medical professionals, or even more.

1. You could open your own practice

As a nurse practitioner, you are eligible to open your own independent practice. Although a Ph.D. degree in Nursing is research-focused, it can prepare you for more advanced practice; for now, a Master’s of Science in Nursing is sufficient to prepare you for advanced practice in nursing. The management and administrative skills you’ll learn while pursuing the Ph.D. degree will come in handy when you start running your own practice.

1. You could relieve the shortage of nurse educators

The shortage of qualified nursing practitioners has partly been caused by a dwindling number of nurse educators. Nursing schools have been struggling to recruit qualified nursing staff; in fact, thousands of nursing school applicants have been turned away in the past for lack of teaching staff. With a Ph.D., you could provide a nursing profession path to hundreds of students who wouldn’t have had a chance to learn.

Want to climb up the ladder to the top of the nursing career? Well, as one of the most advanced nursing credentials, a Ph.D. in Nursing will take you there. Whether you’re aiming for a teaching position, a practice of your own, or prestigious research opportunities, consider pursuing a Ph.D. in Nursing.