Over its almost 50 years history, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has provided about $500M in support of programs to advance nursing practice, education, research, policy, and leadership development. RWJF believes that nurses are critical to improving the health and well-being of all Americans and building a Culture of Health and health equity in the United States. One key issue that RWJF has addressed repeatedly over the past 25 years is the persistent shortage of nurse faculty, particularly those with a PhD degree. The 2011 National Academy of Medicine, Future of Nursing report, sponsored by RWJF, recommended doubling the number of nurses with a doctoral degree (especially a PhD) (
The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. 2011
).The lack of a sufficient supply of nurse faculty prevents nursing programs from accepting more students thus leaving our health system short of well-qualified nurses to address the health and wellness needs of individuals, families and communities. The nursing workforce shortage has never been more apparent than in the last 2½ years as the world has battled COVID. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov), more than 275,000 additional nurses are needed from 2020 to 2030. Employment opportunities for nurses are projected to grow at a faster rate (9%) than all other occupations from 2016 through 2026. The shortages continue due to a lack of potential educators (nurse faculty), high job turnover, and inequitable workforce distribution.
Since 2007, RWJF has launched three programs––the New Jersey Nursing Initiative (NJNI), Nurse Faculty Scholars (NFS), and the Future of Nursing Scholars (FNS)––to address the nurse faculty shortage. NJNI supported nurses in New Jersey, RWJF's home state, to pursue Masters and PhD degrees, and enter nurse faculty roles. The RWJF Nurse Faculty Scholars (NFS) program, from 2008 to 2017, supported the research, leadership and career development of 90 early career nurse faculty. A key program goal was to elevate the visibility and prestige of the nurse faculty role, increasing the number of nurses who choose a faculty role and thus increasing the capacity of nursing programs. By the completion of the NFS program, more than 87% of the program alumni (nurse faculty) had achieved tenure or its equivalent. The NFS program and its outcomes were described in a special issue of Nursing Outlook.
Campbell et al., 2017
.The RWJF Future of Nursing Scholars (FNS) program was launched in 2013 in response to the ongoing nurse faculty and nursing workforce shortages and to support the recommendation of the Future of Nursing 2020 Report to double the number of nurses with a doctoral degree by 2020 (
The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity 2021
). RWJF provided $20M and an innovative funding collaborative supplied an additional $3M (see article in this issue on the funding collaborative). In five cohorts, between 2014 and 2018, FNS provided funding ($75,000 over 3 years, matched with $50,000 from the school), intensive mentoring support, and leadership development to over 200 nurses pursuing their PhD in 45 nursing programs. In addition, FNS funded or cofunded 14 competitive 2-year postdoctoral fellowships.FNS scholars were committed to completing their PhD in the accelerated time frame of 3 years. In the New Jersey Nursing Initiative, scholars completed their PhD in 4 years and, after the program, they reflected that they could have completed their PhD in 3 years with more intensive mentoring and other school supports. FNS was designed with these lessons in mind. A key FNS goal was to move PhD prepared nurses into the field more quickly, thereby encouraging a longer leadership and career trajectory and strengthening the nurse faculty pipeline.
A committed group of program leaders at the schools, the national program office, and the National Advisory Committee, all helped to ensure the success of the program. RWJF takes great pride in the over 200 new PhD prepared Future of Nursing Scholar alums. They have assumed faculty and leadership roles to create a Culture of Health and health equity through science, research, education, and policy. Several aspects of the program stand-out:
- •FNS tested an accelerated 3-year PhD curriculum. Scholars were committed to completing their PhD in 3 years and the nursing programs were committed to providing strong mentors and curriculum changes to help achieve that goal. While an accelerated PhD experience is not for everyone, both the scholars and the programs demonstrated that it can be done well.
- •The program was committed to not only developing more nurse PhDs, but also to creating strong nurse leaders committed to science, education, discovery, and innovation. The leadership development curriculum offered during the initial Boot Camp and Summer Institutes was a highlight of the program for both scholars and mentors. The FNS leadership curriculum complemented content that may have been offered by the individual nursing programs.
- •Mentors were critical to the scholars’ success and the success of the program. The school mentors worked tirelessly to keep the scholars on track for a 3-year graduation, welcomed them onto their research teams, introduced them to subject matter experts and facilitated their overall progress. The national program office also played a significant mentoring role in the scholars success. They held quarterly calls with the scholars to assess progress, mediate issues, and make connections with national leaders. The program office hosted several scholars each year at the Center for the Advancement of Nursing Science (CANS) Nightingala Event. There the program leaders introduced the scholars to national leaders in their research areas to foster current and future connections.
This special issue of Nursing Outlook, with contributions from scholars, funders, faculty mentors, and program leaders and developers, provides an overview of the program; describes the opportunities and challenges of a key program component––mentorship; discusses the unique funding collaborative to expand the amount and reach of the funding support; details the scholar perspective on completing the accelerated 3-year PhD education trajectory; describes the program evaluation in terms of both scholar and school outcomes; and reflects on the impact of the program on nursing education and strategies for the future.
Our nation depends on thetimely preparation of nurse scholars with this level of preparation to not only meet the current and future nursing workforce needs, but also to ensure that the nursing profession remains robust through knowledge generation, innovation, and discovery. As noted in the recent National Academy of Medicine report, The Future of Nursing 2020–2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity, “The slow growth in PhD-prepared nurses is a major concern for the profession and for the nation, because it is these nurses who serve as faculty at many universities and who systematically study issues related to health and health care, including the impact of social determinants of health (SDOH) on health outcomes, health disparities, and health equity. PhD-prepared nurses conduct research on a wide variety of issues relating to SDOH, including the effect of class on children's health; linguistic, cultural, and educational barriers to care; models of care for older adults aging in place; and gun violence.”
We hope that private and public funders, educational institutions and health care systems, business, and community advocates will come together now to develop funding initiatives and programs to address the nurse faculty and the nursing workforce shortages. The health and well-being of the current and future US population depends on it.
Authors' Contributions
Maryjoan Ladden: Conceptualization, writing, editing, review; Susan Hassmiller: editing, review
References
- Overview of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholars program.Nursing Outlook. 2017; 65: 254-264
- National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; National Academy of Medicine; Committee on the Future of Nursing 2020–2030.National Academies Press (US), Washington (DC)2021
- Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing, at the Institute of Medicine.National Academies Press (US), 2011
Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 26, 2022
Accepted:
July 1,
2022
Received:
June 24,
2022
Footnotes
Leveraging a Funding Collaborative to Develop More PhD Prepared Nurse Scientists and Leaders.
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
