The role of PhD-prepared, hospital-based nurses: an inter-Nordic study

Employers' requests when advertising for nurses-A national mapping of recruitment advertising for nurses in Sweden

INTRODUCTION

There is a shortage of nurses and many are leaving the profession. Maintaining sufficient nursing staff is a major healthcare challenge for societies worldwide. Work conditions, job orientation, and career opportunities all factor into nurses' rates of attrition, exit, and turnover. Newly graduated nurses have requested structured introductory and/or mentoring programmes to ease their transition from education to work life and develop the skills and knowledge necessary in their particular work setting. Nurses also seek opportunities to continue learning and developing professionally.

AIMS

To map and describe the content of recruitment advertisements for nurses. Research questions were: 'What qualifications do healthcare employers request when recruiting nurses?' and 'What sorts of professional development do healthcare employers offer nurses?

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A comprehensive national mapping of recruitment advertisements for nurses in Sweden where all advertisements, N = 450, on 20 of the 21 regional hospital websites were collected. A qualitative and a quantitative content analysis was performed.

RESULTS

Personal characteristics dominated requested competence in recruitment advertisements. Employers offered general nursing opportunities with unspecific work content and focused more on recruiting newly registered, rather than experienced, nurses. In only a few advertisements, employers asked for a master's degree. No employer requested nurses with a PhD or research experience.

CONCLUSION

While the World Health Organization stresses the need for a sustainable recruitment and attainment of nurses to secure health care, employers' recruitment of mostly newly graduated nurses and offering little professional development and few career opportunities may be one explanation for the difficulties in securing safe nurse staffing.

Being a nurse between research and clinic: What challenges and opportunities for a PhD-prepared nurse? Overview from an Italian paediatric hospital

AIM

To report a reflection on the role, challenges and opportunities for nurses with advanced education in research outside the academic field.

DESIGN

A discursive paper.

DATA SOURCES

We reported the case of an Italian paediatric research hospital where PhD-prepared nurses started to apply their knowledge and competencies in different fields, both in clinical and organizational settings. From this experience, an overview of the possible barriers and challenges that PhD-prepared nurses may face up within the hospital setting.

DISCUSSION

The application of PhD-prepared nurses in hospital settings could be an opportunity to advance high standards of quality of care in managerial and clinical areas and to create networks between highly specialized professional figures and different clinical-care realities.

CONCLUSION

More research is needed to explore how to apply the advanced competencies of PhD-prepared nurses within healthcare organizations to provide high-quality and safe care and services. This paper can provide insights for a reflection on applying and developing PhD-prepared nurses' skills and competencies within the hospital setting in clinical, research and managerial areas. This can enhance the effective application of highly competent nursing professional figures.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

No Patient or Public Contribution, due to study design.

Clinical practice experience of doctor of philosophy nurses in South Korea: a qualitative study

Purpose

This study aimed to gain a broader understanding of the clinical practice experience of Doctor of Philosophy nurses working in nursing positions.

Method

Participants were 15 full-time nurses who are current Doctor of Philosophy candidates or have acquired a Doctor of Philosophy in nursing. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews and the participants’ diaries, which were analysed using a descriptive qualitative method.

Results

The patient care experiences of Doctor of Philosophy nurses in clinical practice were grouped into four themes: “providing evidence-based and patient-specific education,” “proactively taking responsible for communicating with patients,” “enhancing the quality of nursing through reflective attitudes,” and “advocating for patients using a multifaceted approach.” The factors facilitating or inhibiting clinical practice were identified with three themes.

Conclusion

This study revealed that the Doctor of Philosophy nurses used the knowledge and experience they gained in their Doctor of Philosophy nursing programme to serve as role models for the advancement of nursing education and evidence-based practice.

Searching for a new normal-Hospital-employed researchers' experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND

This study focuses on hospital-employed researchers, a relatively new staff group. Their job descriptions vary, which may lead to lack of clarity or preparedness regarding their roles and core tasks during a crisis such as COVID-19.

AIM

The aim of this study was to explore hospital-employed healthcare researchers' experiences of work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

DESIGN

A qualitative design based on Graneheim and Lundman's latent content analysis of two focus groups with researchers in clinical practice was chosen to explore researchers' experiences of work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

Fifteen hospital researchers participated in two focus groups, divided into predoctoral and postdoctoral researchers. Focus groups were conducted in May 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, using the voice over IP service, Skype®, due to risk of contagion.

FINDINGS

'Searching for a new normal during the COVID-19 pandemic' was the main theme during the latent content interpretation, with subthemes of (i) balancing calm and insecurity, (ii) negotiating core tasks and (iii) considering the future.

CONCLUSION

The 15 researchers tried to balance calm and insecurity within work and family, on standby for the hospital's contingency plan, and in their research tasks. This led them to negotiate their core tasks and to reflect on the changes and consequences for their positions as researchers in clinical practice in the future.

Doctoral programmes in the nursing discipline: a scoping review

Background

This study aimed to map and summarise the state of the research regarding doctoral programs in nursing, as well as the issues debated in the context of nursing doctoral education. A Scoping Review in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis extension scoping reviews statement (PRISMA-ScR) was conducted. Three electronic bibliographic data bases were searched: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature Complete, Medline (on EBSCO Host) and SCOPUS to identify empirical studies published between January 2009 and December 2019. The review process was based on framework identified by Arksey and O’Malley and further revised by Levac and colleagues. Analysis was performed with the use of the Donabedian framework regarding the structure of the doctorate programmes, the process, and the outcomes.

Results

The review included 41 articles, mostly originating in the United States (n=26) and Europe (n=8), mainly by collecting the perceptions of students and faculty members with descriptive studies. The following issues were investigated at the (a) structure level: Prerequisite for doctoral candidates, Qualifications of faculty members, Mission of doctoral programs; (b) process level: Doctoral programs contents, Doctoral programs resources and quality, Mentoring and supervision, Doing doctorate abroad; and (c) outcome level: Academic performance outcomes in doctoral programs, Doctoral graduates’ competences, Doctoral students/graduates’ satisfaction, Doctoral graduates’ challenges.

Conclusions

Doctoral programs have mainly been investigated to date with descriptive studies, suggesting more robust research investigating the effectiveness of strategies to prepare future scientists in the nursing discipline. Doctorates are different across countries, and there is no visible cooperation of scholars internationally; their structure and processes have been reported to be stable over the years, thus not following the research development in nursing, discipline and practice expectations. Moreover, no clear framework of outcomes in the short- and long-term have been established to date to measure the quality and effectiveness of doctorate education. National and global strategies might establish common structure, process and outcome frameworks, as well as promote robust studies that are capable of assessing the effectiveness of this field of education.

The role of doctoral-educated nurses in the clinical setting: Findings from a scoping review

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To map and summarise published studies on the career opportunities and roles of doctoral-educated (PhD and DNP) nurses in the clinical setting; to collate actions as proposed in the literature to promote career opportunities and roles for PhD and DNP nurses in the clinical setting.

BACKGROUND

To improve healthcare outcomes and strengthen leadership in nursing practice, there is the need to place nurses with a doctorate in clinical settings. However, available evidence has never been summarised to map the state of the science in this field.

DESIGN

A scoping review, in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for scoping reviews statement (PRISMA-ScR).

METHODS

An electronic database of literature was searched by accessing CINAHL Complete and Medline (on EBSCO Host) and SCOPUS to identify studies published between January 2009-December 2019. A thematic analysis was performed by identifying emerging patterns in the research questions.

RESULTS

Ten studies were found with three types of clinical engagement: (a) a practice influencer/developer; (b) a clinical leader; and (c) a clinical teacher for students. Working in clinical areas, doctoral-educated nurses might influence several outcomes at the patient, research, staff and organisational levels.

CONCLUSIONS

Clinical roles for doctoral-educated nurses are still uncommon. However, in the last ten years, a debate has started to identify the possible careers in clinical settings, the needs and the challenges encountered while developing clinical academic roles, as well as the outcomes and actions that should be undertaken.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

Academic nursing bodies, working with professional bodies and healthcare institutions at different levels, are called on to develop career frameworks, allowing the opportunity for doctoral-educated nurses to be involved in clinical practice and to influence its quality and performance; this might in turn lead to an increase in the quality of research.

Roles and functions in clinical care for registered nurses with a PhD-A systematic literature review

BACKGROUND

Nurses are responsible for nursing care and their expertise is crucial for quality of care. One factor important to successful delivery of evidence-based care is availability of staff with the expertise to support their colleagues in this endeavour. RN/PhDs versed in scientific research with a thorough knowledge of their disciplines have the potential to help narrow the gap between theory and practice. The roles and functions of RN/PhDs involved in clinical care have not yet been well defined.

AIM

To explore publications concerning clinical contributions from registered nurses who hold a PhD (RN/PhDs) regarding impact on quality and improvement of care.

METHOD

A systematic literature review was conducted and qualitative content analysis was applied to the data obtained from the included studies.

FINDINGS

The leadership role is considered essential for RN/PhDs, where the focus is on the pursuit of evidence-based practice and the improvement of nursing practices. The opportunity to combine the clinical and academic aspects of nursing is considered crucial in order for RN/PhDs to influence and improve care, yet few such positions are currently available. RN/PhDs cited limited career opportunities as one important reason for not combining clinical and academic work.

CONCLUSIONS

In order for nursing practice to reach full potential, clinical positions with clearly defined job descriptions for RN/PhDs are needed. To fully leverage their expertise, it is important to allocate sufficient time to conduct relevant research, as well as to support colleagues and students in the improvement of clinical practice.