Assessing the potential of early-entry doctoral programs to improve the teaching capacity of nursing schools

The Foundation's initiative, Evaluating Innovations in Nursing Education, was designed to identify, evaluate and disseminate innovative strategies to increase the teaching capacity of nursing schools, as well as to promote the recruitment and retention of nurse faculty, with the long-term goal of educating more students.The third round of this Foundation's initiative was designed to fund research projects studying nursing faculty issues that are critical to achieving the recommendations outlined in the 2010 Institute of Medicine report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. This project seeks to generate insights into the prospects for early-entry doctoral programs (admitting pre-baccalaureate students and recent graduates) to increase the number and productivity of future nurse faculty. A case study will compare early-entry, mid-entry, and late-entry doctoral students enrolled at the University of Wisconsin School of Nursing to identify distinctive decision-making processes and to document differences in productivity, rates of academic progression, and pursuit of faculty positions. In-depth interviews with 84 students (targeting the entire population) will provide the major source of data (e.g., identifying influences on entering a doctoral program, previous related experiences, other career and educational options considered, financial considerations, career aspirations, intent to join a nurse faculty, reasons for withdrawing from the doctoral program); another prime source of data will be the School's student records (e.g., on academic progression, demographic characteristics, academic and research performance). Qualitative and quantitative analyses will produce findings that will be widely disseminated among members of the nursing academic community, nursing students, and policymakers.