Thóra B Hafsteinsdóttir RN, PhD, Senior Researcher, Nursing Science Department, University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands, t.hafsteinsdottir@umcutrecht.nl

To meet the future health care needs of societies, governments and policy makers need to support the academic education and career development of  nurses. Nurses are scientists who generate new knowledge to advance nursing practice, improve healthcare quality, shape health policy and improve population health[1]. To achieve this goal, course curricula for all levels of nursing education must have relevant coursework and mentoring  to prepare students for their roles in clinical practice, education and research[2]. Health care needs to adapt to the evolving scientific knowledge and societal needs. Nursing practice is at the center health care; nursing research and education are the foundation of nursing. To be able to provide nursing education based on research and to conduct nursing research highly qualified nurses are needed. Nursing education encompasses both pedagogical evidence-based practice (evidence-based teaching practice [EBTP]) and clinical evidence-based practice (EBP). Therefore, nurse educators, must possess knowledge and skills in pedagogical practice as well as the clinical practice area in which they teach [3]. Internationally for academic staff leading Master’s and PhD programmes, a PhD degree is the main criterion required [4]. Competences were identified for nurses with PhD background,- during the doctoral education or postdoctoral period as the management of:  (1) research field; (2) research skills;  (3) research ethics; (4) cognitive competence; (5) self‐management; (6) research communication; (7) team working; (8) team leadership; (9) resources; (10) career; (11) pedagogy; (12) implementation; (13) future vision; (14) technical competence; and (15) intercultural competence[5]. For the clinical nursing practice, PhD prepared nurses play a critical role in educating and mentoring clinical nurses to enable high quality and safe care to patients. Studies reported the following benefits of PhD prepared nurses, as they:

• are the experts in research and evidence based practice;
• develop and advance innovative health care for diverse populations;
• build inter- and intra-disciplinary networks to generate high quality innovative knowledge to secure high quality and safe care to patients;
• implement evidence based knowledge in clinical practice, education and policy development that can lead to improved working environment;
• educate and mentor (under)graduate nurses for advanced careers in clinical practice, research and education [6-10].                                                 

Thus PhD prepared nurses are the future leaders of the nursing science and the nursing profession who can potentially transform health care to benefit patients, families and communities.

In line with this background, the aim of work package 2.4 is to initiate structural and institutional changes in managing Master and PhD education and the quality assurance of postgraduate education in nursing according to European Best Practices. At the moment we are organizing the Masterclass 2 aiming: to develop guidelines and assessment criteria for the assessment of Master’s and PhD thesis. This is done in good collaboration with partners and with the involvement and support of Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Science, Eurasian Centre for Accreditation and Quality Assurance in Higher Education and Healthcare, medical centers and hospitals. This will improve the education of nurses and ultimately to improve health care of patients families and communities in Kazakhstan.

References:

1) AACN, 2020 American Association of Colleges of Nursing: The voice of Academic Nursing. Fact Sheet 2020.  https://www.aacnnursing.org/News-Information/Fact-Sheets

2) Smaldone A, Larson EL.  What PhD competencies should guide the preparation of nurse scientists?

Journal of Professional Nursing. Volume 37, Issue 1, January–February 2021, Pages 201-203.

3)Booth TL, Emerson CJ, Hackney CJ Souter S. Preparation of academic nurse educators Nurse Education in Practice 19 (2016) 54e57

4) Leino-Kilpi H. Stolt M. 2019 State of Nursing Science in Finland In: Hafsteinsdóttir et al. 2019 Leadership in Nursing: Experiences from the Nordic Countries. 2019 Springer (6) (Numminen et al. 2019)

5) Numminen O, Virtanen H, Hafsteinsdóttir T, Leino-Kilpi H; Nurse Lead Consortium. Postdoctoral nursing researcher career: A scoping review of required competences. Nursing Open. 2019  24;7(1):7-29. doi: 10.1002/nop2.367.

6) Cheraghi, M. et al. (2014). Clinical nurses’ perceptions and expectations of the role of doctorally-prepared nurses: A qualitative study in Iran. Nurse Education in Practice, 14(1), 18–23.

7) Cashion, A. K., et al. (2019). The Value and Importance of PhD Nurse Scientists. Journal of

Nursing Scholarship. 51(6): 611-613.

8) The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity 2021 A Consensus Study from the National Academy of Medicine https://nam.edu/publications/the-future-of-nursing-2020-2030/

9)Berthelsen, C. B., et al. (2018). Caught between a rock and a hard place: An intrinsic single case study of nurse researchers’ experiences of the presence of a nursing research culture in clinical practice. Journal of Clinical Nursing, (1), 1–9.

10) van Oostveen, C. J., et al. (2017). Combining clinical practice and academic work in nursing: a qualitative study. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 26(23), 4973–4984.