Beating Burnout: Continuing Education For A New Career

Why You Should Pursue Your Doctorate In Nursing

17 July 2019

Eli Mitchell

Whether you are at the early stages of your nursing education or will be graduating with your bachelor's degree shortly, you should consider how far you want to go in your education. Pursing a doctorate can open additional doors in the nursing field.

Teaching Opportunities

Many professors at post-secondary institutions that teach nursing classes have a master's degree. This may allow them both adjunct and full-time lecturer positions teaching undergraduate nursing students. With a doctorate, not only are you in a position to teach graduate-level nursing students, but you may be qualified for better positions in academia. A common goal for nurses with a doctorate who want to teach full-time is to become a tenure-track professor. Additionally, nurses with advanced education and experience may find that their teaching roles extend to clinical rotations in hospitals and other medical care facilities.

Research

Although nursing is often synonymous with clinical practice, there are also research aspects to nursing. Earning a doctorate may be necessary if you want to follow a research-based path. Generally, researchers may work in academia or teaching hospitals with members of a team or branch out and become the lead investigator of their own studies. Some different topics you may want to study are aspects of patient care, such as improving recovery and patient outcomes after surgery.

If you want to pursue research, you will also need to consider the type of doctorate program you pursue. There is a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and a Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing (Ph.D.). Much like other fields, such as clinical psychology, that have more than one type of doctorate degree, the Ph.D. will be more research-oriented and include the defense of a dissertation for completion. Nurses who want to pursue research will find the Ph.D. is more applicable to their long-term goals.

Specializations

In many cases, the higher you go in your education, the more opportunities you have for specialization. You are likely to find more options for specialization in clinical practice with a DNP program. For example, you may see programs with an option for specialization to work with specific patient populations, such as pediatrics, gerontology, or critical care. Additionally, DNP programs can allow you to become a nurse anesthetist or a nurse practitioner. These areas of nursing can be more appealing for some nurses since they have more patient responsibility and autonomy in their field.

During your undergraduate years in a nursing program, you should seriously consider whether you want to pursue a doctorate in nursing. Making the decision early in your studies will make it easier to prepare yourself for entrance into a graduate program.

Share  

Search