What is a postdoc?

Now that I am a postdoctoral fellow, I am asked, “What is a postdoc?” almost as much as I used to be asked, “What do you do with a PhD in nursing?” The mysterious postdoctoral fellowship isn’t well understood by many people outside of academia or research. Even for those in research, there is no one model. Just like doctoral programs, every postdoctoral fellowship is not created equal.

In a general sense, a postdoctoral fellowship—often referred to as a postdoc—is a program that allows those with doctoral degrees to gain additional experience in mentored research before beginning teaching or research careers. The fellowship is typically completed in a period of one to two years. During this time, postdocs—the term is also used to identify those in a postdoctoral fellowship—are given protected time to work on research projects, publish manuscripts, and strengthen their résumés with research experience. It is an opportunity for novice researchers to gain additional experience before they are hired into teaching or research positions and left to their own devices.

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Gainful employment

A postdoc is essentially a job. Postdocs are paid, typically from a training grant, to conduct research, and the grants are usually customized to meet the needs of the people in the fellowship. Each postdoc works on his or her research and reports back to the other fellows regularly. Sometimes, they are also required to take additional research courses or other classes that increase their knowledge in a specific research area. Often, these courses are audited or taken for no credit. However, it is becoming more common for postdocs to matriculate as graduate students and earn a master’s degree at the end of their fellowship.

When I first entered my PhD program and learned more about postdoctoral fellowships, I was sure I did not want one. No way was I going to graduate with a PhD only to go back to school! I knew I wanted to teach and thought I would apply for assistant professor jobs during my last year in school. However, during my second year in my PhD program, I attended the annual Summer Research Institute sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and loved it! I knew then I wanted to continue learning about and conducting research, while being mentored by amazing researchers.

I originally thought I would apply for a traditional postdoc in the Penn School of Nursing, but in my next to last year as a PhD student, I learned of a new postdoc called the National Clinician Scholars Program. This postdoc is an iteration of the widely successful physician-only Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program. I loved that NCSP supported physician-nurse collaboration. I loved that the fellowship combines clinical practice, research knowledge, and health policy in a way that allows fellows to seek hybrid careers in direct patient care, academia, and government. I also loved the idea of going through my postdoc as part of a cohort, instead of just working on my individual research, alone in my apartment.

First nurse in first NCSP cohort

As fate would have it, I was the first nurse accepted into the first NCSP cohort at Penn. Although I am a proud nurse, my postdoc is housed in and ultimately run by UPenn’s Perelman School of Medicine. Because this is my first research experience working with physician colleagues, it took me a while to get used to the environment. I still find it odd to call physicians by their first names, but it is quickly becoming my new normal. Whether nurses or physicians, as postdocs we are all on the same playing field. We are here to gain more research experience, and we are committed to public service. We are learning from one other and helping each other grow, both inside and outside the classroom. To participate in this fellowship, I had to leave a life of comfort and move 2,300 miles across the United States. I don’t regret it one bit.

My goal is to use the next two years to continue building my research portfolio. I also plan to become more involved in health policy again. I really enjoyed the work I previously did with the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses. (See my blog post “Maternal-child health nursing in Indonesia” for a glimpse into my time as an international frontline health worker advocate.) Involvement in advocacy and helping to shape policy is not only necessary, I thoroughly enjoy it.

Finally, I want to use the time in my postdoc to narrow down a potential career. While teaching will always be my first love, it’s been nice to think about working in an area that I didn’t previously consider. Whatever the case, you-all will be along for the ride. I’m excited to see where the next two years takes us!

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Comments are moderated. Those that promote products or services will not be posted.

Broaden your horizons!

Before attending graduate school the first time, I contemplated where I should obtain my master’s degree. My original plan was to obtain my MSN at San Jose State University (SJSU), the same school where I obtained my BSN. It made sense for several reasons: The school was local; I was already familiar with the campus climate and politics; and, most importantly, I had established a rapport with the nursing faculty.

My plans took a back seat, however, to life’s twists and turns. As fate would have it, I ended up leaving the Bay Area of Northern California and coming back to Los Angeles, in Southern California, prior to submitting any applications, and I ended up enrolling in a school—California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH)—that wasn’t originally on my radar. My choice to attend CSU Dominguez Hills was one of convenience. I quickly learned, however, that fate was doing its job, and what I thought was a choice of pure convenience taught me the value of broadening my horizons.

What I thought was a choice of pure convenience taught me the value of
broadening my horizons.

Having attended San Jose for my BSN and Dominguez Hills for my MSN, I was certain I would attend yet another school for my PhD, and I did—the University of California, Los Angeles, better known as UCLA. After being accepted by UCLA, I thought my educational journey had reached its last stop. Boy, was I wrong! As I began my second year of doctoral studies, postdoc seemed to be the new buzzword. Almost everyone, it seemed to me, was either suggesting I plan to commit to a postdoctoral program or asking what schools I had in mind for my postdoc. Continuing on as a postdoctoral fellow was the last thing on my mind until I began to understand the benefit of such a program. Faced with having to make a decision about where to apply for a postdoc, I chose, once again, to look at programs associated with institutions not on my list of alma maters.

Now that I have attended three universities in pursuit of three degrees, I encourage everyone I can to attend a different school for each degree. My rationale is simple: You want to make your network as wide as possible and learn from as many different scholars as you can. Each school has its own philosophy on teaching, learning, and education. I don’t think it’s beneficial, therefore, to become too attached to any one institution, because you inadvertently miss out on the opportunity to partake in other educational experiences. I’ll use myself as an example of someone I regard as having a well-rounded education.

I attended SJSU for undergrad and had the opportunity to experience a teaching-intensive university. While some of my professors may have participated in research, it was not their main focus. I was in a teaching institution, and my instructors were dedicated educators and clinicians.

When I enrolled at CSUDH, I knew my experience would be different because, although the school is another California State University and a teaching-intensive institution, the master’s program was completely online. The experiences associated with earning my BSN and MSN degrees were as different as night and day.

Now, as a student at UCLA, a Tier One research university, my experience is vastly different from the experiences I had at the teaching universities. Research is the top priority at UCLA; that is no secret. Opportunities to participate in research training, work on grants, write publications, and work as a teacher’s assistant are unparalleled. Had I stayed at SJSU for my MSN and enrolled in its DNP program, I would not have had the amazing experience of obtaining an online degree or studying at a world-renowned research university.

Aside from the educational experiences one has as a student, there are also the connections you make with classmates and faculty members. If you attend the same school for your undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees, you may have different classmates (unless everyone else has the same mindset as you and doesn’t change schools), but you will probably have the same faculty members, and chances are their teaching philosophies won’t change. Neither will their networks.

As a student, you want to be exposed not only to colleagues and faculty members within your university, but also those with no connection to your university. One way to increase this exposure and your potential networking opportunities is to attend professional conferences, but another way to create strong networks with many nurses is to develop relationships with faculty members from various schools.

As you branch out and expand your network, your potential connections grow exponentially. It’s like having a Twitter following. The more people you follow, the more information you’re bound to come across. It has nothing to do with the people you are following, per se. It’s more about their following and with whom you become connected while using them as an intermediary. No one in the Twitter-verse would follow the same 30 people and refuse to expand their network because of the convenience of following just 30 people. Use this same sort of thinking when considering schools for obtaining your next degree. You want to be connected to as many people as possible.

While earning all of my degrees at the same school may have been less expensive, less time-consuming, and much less of a headache, I cannot adequately convey the benefits that learning from three sets of faculty, being exposed to three different institutional ways of thinking, and being connected with new mentors from three universities has provided. Some of the most rewarding professional relationships I have are with nurses with whom I struck up a conversation after introducing myself as a student of Professor X or a past TA for Professor Y. It’s not always easy to be the new student at a large (or small) university, but think of all of the potential connections there are to be made. Think of all of the new people you will meet and the places you will potentially go!

The point of networking is to create a proverbial net that, when cast, covers a vast amount of space. Don’t hinder your opportunity to network by staying within the same four walls for all your days as a student.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI).