Sustaining excellence and relevance in PhD nursing education

Emerging areas of nursing science and PhD education for the 21st century: Response to commentaries

“…As noted by Breslin et al (2015), expanding the knowledge base for health professional practice is increasingly reliant on interdisciplinary translational research to help close the gaps between research and practice. The IFAC endorsed translation science and patient-reported outcomes as two priority areas in research-focused doctoral education in nursing because they link practice and research, ensuring that new knowledge enters the practice setting and that practice-based knowledge informs research.…”

“…The impact of the faculty shortage on nursing research is of special concern and intersects with the question of "who" can be a nursing scientist (Villarruel & Fairman, 2015). Securely integrating emerging areas of science into PhD programs will require interdisciplinary collaboration (Breslin et al, 2015 andKnafl andGrey, 2008) as well as the appointment of qualified scientists in related fields to tenure-accruing positions in schools and colleges of nursing (Henly et al, 2015a). Ensuring diversity in the scientific workforce requires ongoing institutional commitment responsive to the motivation and needs of students from underrepresented groups aspiring to become nursing scientists (e.g., Henly et al, 2006 andKim et al, 2009).…”

“…Scientific inquiry is vital to informing health policy (Breslin et al, 2015), and economics, the science of scarcity and abundance, is an essential aspect of the information. Deliberate consideration of the policy arm of a career trajectory has been recommended (Feetham & Doering, 2015).…”

“…We thank the commentators from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (Breslin, Sebastian, Trautman, & Rosseter, 2015), the American Academy of Nursing (Villarruel & Fairman, 2015), and the National Institute of Nursing Research (Grady, 2015) for their excellent discussions of our articles addressing implications of emerging and priority areas of science and their impact on preparation of the next generation of nursing scientists. Likewise, we are grateful to the anonymous peer reviewers who questioned us about some critical issues that we will address here.…”

“…Breslin et al (2015) emphasized the continuing evolution of nursing PhD programs to sustain excellence and relevance; they identified education in the sciences, preparation for leadership in policy, developing a diverse community of scholars, and cross-institutional collaboration as important aspects to consider as emerging areas of knowledge are integrated into PhD programs. Villarruel & Fairman (2015) considered the social mandate for nursing research; they especially emphasized the importance of social and political context in ascribing importance to research priorities and questions.…”