5 tips for choosing a doctoral program

I seem to have adopted a pattern of making life-changing decisions based on emotion. Fact checking and research did not factor into my choice of an undergraduate program (see my post “Do you know the way to San Jose?”), nor did they affect my selection of an MSN program. (The latter decision was made purely for the sake of convenience. I was working full time nights, and I didn’t want a traditional program that would require me to attend class. An added bonus was the program’s inexpensive cost. I knew I wouldn’t have to take out a loan to pay for my degree.) The way I went about selecting my PhD program (see previous post) was slightly unconventional and, although I’m delighted with my decision, I don’t recommend my decision-making process as a method for everyone to follow.

In hindsight, however, I unconsciously considered some key factors in making my decision to apply to UCLA. And now that I am in my second year of the program, my knowledge about choosing a graduate program is based on both wisdom and experience. Here are five tips for those thinking about applying to graduate school.

Tip #1: Follow the dollar signs.

Funding for graduate students is available in abundance. Whether it’s scholarships, traineeships, or fellowships, the money is there, and it’s money you don’t have to pay back! If you don’t have the money to pay for your education outright, and you don’t want to take out loans, look at the programs that offer the greatest funding.

Sometimes funding comes in the form of tuition reimbursement for students who work as teachers’ assistants or as research assistants. Working as a TA or RA is a great way to pay for your education, and it’s a win-win situation. You gain valuable experience as an instructor or novice researcher, and the school gets an instructor or researcher at lower cost. Be careful to read and understand all of the small print associated with receiving financial aid. Sometimes, the institution requires recipients of such aid to work in a certain area or commit to a certain number of years of teaching or research following graduation. If you are considering applying for funding, see my two-part post “Scholarship alert!!! 10 tips for success in applying for scholarships.”

Tip #2: Make sure your research interest fits the school.

Once you become a graduate student, your research will become your life. Before applying to a specific school, be sure someone on the faculty is an expert in your research area. Most nursing school websites have pages that list faculty members’ current and past research areas. In fact, some schools have a faculty research page that lists all of the faculty’s research, and a significant number of schools also list recent faculty-member publications and conference presentations. Identifying the research interest, publications, and presentations of various faculty members will help you determine whether or not the school fits your research needs.

It’s also important to look at the type of research being done in the school. If you are interested in qualitative research, but the school is full of mostly quantitative researchers, it may not be a good fit for you. Likewise, if you are interested in community-based participatory research, and no one on the school’s faculty is engaged in this type of research, you may be better off looking elsewhere.

In addition to reviewing school of nursing websites, note the authors of journal articles in your area of interest. I’ve found that nursing is a small world, which becomes even smaller when you begin to seek out experts in specific research areas. When reading journal articles, you will begin to see the same names over and over again. Look up the school where those researchers work. If the researcher is a “big name” expert, he or she has probably been at that school for quite some time.

Tip #3: Assess resources available at the school.

Don’t underestimate this criterion for choosing a school. One thing I love about UCLA is its Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library. (Not only are all of the journals, books and other reference materials of importance to nursing students located there, but we still have access to eight other libraries on campus. (Yes, UCLA has nine libraries on campus.) It also has a graduate reading room (secured so only those with a graduate ID from one of the biomedical schools are allowed entrance), graduate student gym—no undergrads allowed, I love it!— and a graduate-student writing center that includes, as one of its benefits, 250 free pages per quarter. There are plenty of other campus resources I love, but this is not about me.

Questions you may want to ask yourself when selecting a graduate school include: What types of databases does the school subscribe to? Can I access other libraries at nearby schools? Does the library participate in interlibrary loans? Is there a library or librarian dedicated to servicing your school or major? Do undergraduates and graduates use the same library? Are resources available to assist graduates with writing? What types of counseling services are available? Is graduate housing provided? Is graduate housing separate from undergraduate housing? I’m sure there are other resources of specific importance to you. Determine what your nonnegotiables are, and then compare them to resources available at the graduate school or schools you are considering.

Tip #4: Check the rankings.

I wasn’t one to care much about national rankings at the undergraduate or master’s level, but a school’s rank is definitely important at the doctoral level. My take on this is simple: The only school that really matters when it comes to rankings is the one from which you receive your highest degree. Being able to say that I am a student at UCLA holds a lot of clout. The same should be true for your school of choice. After all, why pay a bunch of money or spend a significant amount of time working as a TA or RA in exchange for tuition reimbursement only to graduate from a program that is not well recognized or, worse, a program that is not highly respected?

U.S. News and World Report ranks graduate programs in nursing. (They rank UCLA at No. 21 but, of course, it’s No. 1 in my eyes.) If you are looking to be trained as a researcher, you should also pay attention to where the school ranks when it comes to research funding. The National Institutes of Health is a major funder of schools of nursing, and up-to-date funding information can be retrieved from their Awards by Location and Organization database. (Click on the various criteria provided to look at information from various perspectives—organization, location, etc.) Other important decision factors to consider, including accreditation, are available from the National League for Nursing and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

Tip #5: Talk to current students in the program.

This is probably the most important factor to consider. You don’t want to enroll in a program only to later find yourself saying in frustration, “If I knew then what I know now!” Currently enrolled students are your best resources when it comes to getting the unadulterated truth about a program. They understand and have been indoctrinated into the “<insert program name here> way.” They know the politics associated with getting into and, more importantly, getting out of the program. They can give you inside information on teaching philosophies of professors and their methods of grading. They can tell you if your research interest is a good fit for the program you are considering or if you would be better off applying to another school. They can give you the scoop on being a TA or RA, who do you want to work for as a TA or RA, and what the expected workload is if you become a TA or RA. They will also tell you whether you should work or not during any given term and if it’s a good idea to take courses outside of the school of nursing during another term. Students currently enrolled in the program are your allies. Use them wisely.

When choosing a graduate program, you have to do what’s best for you. I have provided five major tips for making that decision, but they are based on what I thought was best for me. If I were married or had children or had to go to school out of state, my preferences would change accordingly. Your decision to go to graduate school is a personal matter and, ultimately, the school you select should be based on no one’s opinion but your own. No matter the reasons you use to choose your graduate school, congratulations on making the choice to further your education!

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

How I ended up at UCLA

I’m often asked how I chose UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) as the school I would attend to obtain my PhD. To be honest, I don’t feel as though I chose it, but that it chose me.

Before I was halfway through my MSN program, I began looking at nursing PhD programs. I also considered EdD programs, because my MSN is in nursing education, and I have a passion for teaching. Enrolled at the time in an online program, I was not keen on pursuing another online program, but I knew this meant I would have to move. I looked around the UCLA School of Nursing website, but did not see how the PhD program would be a good fit for me, because my research interest was nursing education and the PhD program at UCLA does not focus heavily on research related to that interest. In fact, until a chance meeting with the nursing school’s director of recruitment, outreach and admissions, my mind was made up that UCLA was not the place for me.

During a break at the 2010 Leadership Summit in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, sponsored by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International, I approached UCLA School of Nursing’s exhibit table. To be honest, I was alone and, because the woman behind the table was also alone, thought I’d stir up a little conversation. I told Rhonda Flenoy-Younger—director of recruitment—that I had looked at UCLA, but didn’t think the program was for me.

She encouraged me to look at the information on a flash drive she handed me, and she took down my email address. She also introduced me to the dean of the School of Nursing. In speaking with him about my research interest, he encouraged me to apply to UCLA but not with the same research interest. When I returned home, I began receiving emails from Flenoy-Younger, inviting me to meetings of the Pan-African Nursing Students and Alumni Association (PANSAA) at UCLA. I ignored the first two meeting invitations, but responded to the third.

At the PANSAA meeting, I immediately felt a level of comfort among the students that I hadn’t felt at my undergraduate school or in the online MSN program from which I had recently graduated. Very interesting to me was that there were alumni in attendance, some who had graduated in the 1970s and ‘80s. Even the dean was there. I left that meeting feeling that, maybe, UCLA had something to offer after all. 

The next day, after attending a PhD information session presented by the UCLA School of Nursing (UCLA SON), I was sold! The support I felt from the faculty, their obvious love of research and UCLA, the personal stories of those on the student panel, and the commitment of the School of Nursing to provide tuition for all graduate teachers’ assistants was all I needed to make my decision. I left the session with my mind made up—I would apply to UCLA and would continue to apply until I was accepted.

A few days later, while attending the 2010 Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, I met a nurse educator-researcher who encouraged me to contact a faculty member at UCLA SON who was her personal friend. After contacting the professor, I set up a meeting with her.

First, though, I met with another faculty member, who encouraged me to choose a research interest about which I was truly passionate, not one that simply coincided with my MSN degree. At that point, my interest changed from nursing education to teen-pregnancy prevention. A week or two later, I met the friend of the nurse I had met at the AWHONN conference. Unbeknownst to me, the area of nursing about which I was now most passionate was the research area of this faculty member. I was sitting face-to-face with a world-renowned expert in teen pregnancy, and I had no idea! The encouragement I received from these two faculty members only strengthened my resolve to obtain my PhD from the UCLA School of Nursing.

Watch for my next post on choosing a doctoral program.

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

PhD or DNP? How to choose

 Before looking into doctoral programs, prospective nursing students should decide which route is right for them. Currently, two major nursing degrees are awarded at the doctoral level—the Doctor of Philosophy in nursing and the Doctor of Nursing Practice. In my discussions with BSN- and MSN-prepared nurses, there seems to be a little confusion about the two doctoral degrees. My advice is, do your research and know which degree you want before deciding what school to apply to. Put another way, looking at various schools of nursing and using this information to decide which degree you wish to pursue is not the proper way to make the decision. This is because the two degrees are vastly different and, depending on what you want to do with it, pursuing the wrong degree will be a complete waste of your time.

The PhD is a research-oriented degree. The DNP, on the other hand, is a practice degree, which can be likened to degrees obtained by physicians, dentists, pharmacists and optometrists or ophthalmologists. There are a few major differences between the PhD and the DNP. While everyone may not agree with my explanation, consider the following categorical differences.

Prestige

Because of their vast differences, the degrees should not be directly compared but, in general, the PhD is regarded as the more prestigious of the two. Of course, the PhD has been around longer and is more widely recognized. It is also the terminal degree in nursing, meaning that no higher degree is attainable. If you looked at nursing degrees from a step-chart perspective, they would look something like this:

The chart may be slightly misleading because, in pursuing nursing degrees, a person doesn’t have to go from one step to the next. For instance, the point of entry for a person seeking a nursing license can be a diploma, an associate degree, a bachelor’s degree or an entry-level master’s degree. Also, a nurse doesn’t have to obtain a master’s degree before pursuing a doctoral degree. Still, the chart is a good indicator of how each nursing degree is viewed with regard to prestige.

Two types of knowledge

While both degrees are designed to produce nurses who will contribute to the knowledge base of the profession, one thing is clear—the PhD-educated nurse is expected to create new knowledge. A PhD dissertation cannot be successfully defended without the generation of new knowledge. As nurses who are more focused on practice than research, those in DNP programs may or may not have generated new knowledge upon completing their capstone projects.

An easy way to differentiate between the two degrees is to see the PhD nurse as a knowledge-creator and the DNP nurse as a knowledge-applier. Where a PhD program focuses on understanding the philosophical and theoretical foundations of nursing and using these foundations to generate new knowledge, a DNP program focuses on taking knowledge available to the profession and transferring it to practical application.

Focus on hands-on-nursing

Obtaining a PhD requires no clinical hours at the bedside or direct patient care. Obtaining a DNP, however, typically does require some type of practice hours to prove a student’s competence in his or her specialty area. If you are studying to become a nurse educator, for instance, you may have to work in an academic or clinical education setting. Or, if you are obtaining your DNP to become a nurse practitioner or clinical nurse specialist, you will spend many hours under the preceptorship of an already licensed advanced practice nurse.

PhD students take courses such as philosophy and theory to stimulate abstract thinking about the nursing profession whereas DNP students take courses such as pathophysiology and nursing assessment, knowledge and skills more geared to nursing practice. I have seen PhD nurses work per diem or volunteer in order to maintain their nursing skills, provide community service or supplement their income, but never have I come across a PhD-prepared nurse who works full time providing direct patient care. DNP-prepared nurses, on the other hand, often work in patient-care settings as nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, nurse administrators, nurse educators and nurse researchers. Both PhD and DNP nurses teach in academic settings.

Choose wisely

Whichever degree you choose to pursue, make your choice wisely. If you are in a PhD program but want to be a full-time nurse practitioner, you may find yourself miserable. If you are in a DNP program, but want to be a world-renowned neuroscience researcher, you may also be miserable. Although it is OK—and highly encouraged—to compare and contrast the two doctoral degrees in nursing, it is imperative to understand that neither degree is “better” than the other. They are complementary. Both are needed to keep patients safe and to continue advancing the practice of nursing.

I like to joke that the PhD is the attractive, older sister and the DNP the sassy, younger sister, but their momma and daddy love them both the same. I need my DNP “siblings” just as much as they need me. We are one big happy family.

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

What do you do with a PhD in nursing?

Almost weekly, I am asked about my choice to pursue a Doctor of Philosophy in nursing. The frequency of this makes me wonder if the general public only sees nurses as bedside handmaidens who take orders from physicians. The more frustrating thing is when these probing questions come from other PhD students.

I was shocked the first time I was asked by a non-nursing PhD student, “What do you do with a PhD in nursing?” I’ve now grown used to hearing this question from my doctoral colleagues outside the school of nursing. Still, it’s quite bothersome, because the question usually isn’t framed as an inquiry about what area of research I’m interested in or what type of employment I plan to seek upon graduation. It’s more, “Why in the world would a nurse want a PhD?”

Before I became accustomed to the question, I wasn’t sure how to answer it. Oftentimes, it was difficult to decipher whether or not the person asking was trying to be sarcastic (especially if the question came from another PhD student). At one point, I became irritated by the question and started giving a pretty snappy reply: “The same thing you do with a PhD in anything else!”

After completing a year of doctoral studies, however, I now realize that the general public is unaware of all the wonderful avenues available to nurses. So, now I view the question as an opportunity to educate.

What do you do with a PhD in nursing? Whatever you want! There are PhD-prepared nurses who teach, conduct research, evaluate programs, write books, lead health care organizations and work for the government. With a doctoral degree, the sky is the limit. One thing I doubt most nurse PhDs want to do is work full time in direct patient care. At the doctoral level, nursing is less about hands-on patient care and more about the abstract thinking that helps move the profession forward. More than anything else, a nurse with a PhD has the training needed to conduct research and add to the body of available nursing research knowledge. While not all PhD-prepared nurses choose to work as researchers, all have been exposed to great amounts of research and have had to demonstrate their ability to conduct high-quality research on their own.

Three jobs I’ve noticed that most PhD-prepared nurses consider are listed below. The job descriptions provided are based on my observations of nurses employed in these positions, and they may vary from facility to facility:

Nursing faculty member—A nurse educator who works in an AS, BSN, MSN or PhD program as a classroom instructor. Nurse faculty members are also responsible for creating, implementing and evaluating program curricula and mentoring nursing students. Oftentimes, in addition to their teaching responsibilities, they are expected to conduct research. They typically disseminate this research in scholarly journals and at research conferences.

Director of nursing research—a nurse researcher who serves as administrator of the nursing research department of a health care facility or coordinator of the facility’s nursing research program. The director may supervise other nursing research employees, or he or she may be responsible for overseeing all nursing research projects conducted within the facility. The director of nursing research is typically the go-to person within the facility for questions regarding the design and implementation of a desired research study. He or she may or may not be responsible for dissemination of research findings.

Director of clinical services—a clinical administrator who oversees daily operations of patient care departments in a health care facility. He or she is the liaison between upper management and department managers. Although the director is not involved in direct patient care, he or she is aware of the work flows in each department that promote optimal patient care. The director may generate or receive reports addressing the efficiency of departmental work flows, and this information is then given to each department manager in an effort to increase efficiency and patient satisfaction.

Other jobs available to PhD-prepared nurses include research or high-ranking administrative positions in pharmaceutical companies, research institutes, health advocacy organizations, health care information technology corporations and nursing or other health-related publishing companies. A nurse who has attained a PhD can practically work anywhere that research, education, or program evaluation takes place. The important thing to remember is that graduation from a reputable PhD program ensures that a nurse has received proper research training.

If you have any additions to the types of jobs held by nurses with PhDs, please post below. I’d like to learn of new opportunities for nurses with the terminal degree.

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

Star-struck!

As I sit in the airport preparing to leave Indianapolis and the 2012 Leadership Forum, hosted by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International, I am still in awe that I got a chance to meet her! She may not be a Hollywood star, a world-famous singer or another type of pop celebrity, but Loretta Sweet Jemmott, PhD, RN, FAAN, is a celebrity in my eyes.

You see, as a doctoral student, I have become very familiar with certain nurse researchers and their literary works. When you see the same names over and over again, the authors begin to become your nursing idols. They are the nurses you look up to, the researchers whose work you want to mimic, the change agents who have created the paths you want to follow.

In the same way that music fans admire Beyonce or Carrie Underwood or Michael Jackson, PhD students admire nurse researchers and, once inspired by their work, we want to know as much as we can about who they are. We Google their names, read their faculty Web pages and may even be bold enough to e-mail them with a question or comment concerning one of their publications. Once I discovered that Professor Jemmott had worked on research and published with my faculty adviser, I was over the moon! While I may not have known her personally, knowing that she worked with my adviser made me feel that much closer to the possibility of meeting her.

Imagine my surprise when I opened my Leadership Summit program booklet only to find that Jemmott was the keynote speaker at one of the Leadership Forum luncheons. Ahhhhh!!! I could have screamed, but I just smiled widely, instead. I've never been extremely impressed by celebrities, but I thought "This is how people must feel about Beyonce!" Throughout my first two days at the conference, I eagerly awaited the opportunity to meet Professor Jemmott.

Then it happened, President Prevost introduced Jemmott to the forum audience and my thumbs went into overdrive tweeting bits and pieces of her address:

• @tmontgomeryrn: "If it's gonna be ..., it's up to me!" ~ Loretta Sweet Jemmott #STTI
• @tmontgomeryrn: "When you feel like a failure, you don't quit. ... You go back to school." ~ Loretta Sweet Jemmott #STTI
• @tmontgomeryrn: "Do not take for granted that things will happen because you're here. ... Things happen because you make them happen." ~ Loretta Sweet Jemmott

Once Jemmott finished speaking, we were given the opportunity to meet her. Of course, I made a beeline straight to her table. I couldn't believe how nervous I was about meeting her. I stumbled over my words a little. "Good afternoon, Dr. Jemmott. My name is Tiffany Montgomery, and I'm a second-year student at UCLA. My advisor is Dr. Deborah Koniak-Griffin. I am really interested in your work. I e-mailed you once, but." She stopped me while I was speaking and told me to call her. I could have died and gone to heaven. ME call YOU? Really? I was so nervous in recording her number that my hand was shaking. My writing looked like complete chicken-scratch.

Yours Truly and Dr. Jemmott

I felt as if I'd just met the president of the United States. The woman who, in my mind, is equal in status to President Obama had just given me permission to call her to discuss her research. Were it possible, spontaneous combustion would have ignited my body and I would have burst into a million little pieces.

As I sit in this airport, shivering from the cold air conditioning, the world of nursing has become a little smaller. The likelihood of meeting world-renowned nurse researchers has become a little more real. I have no desire to meet bigwig movie stars or entertainment celebrities, but the thought of meeting more nursing research celebrities is very exciting. These nurse celebrities will someday be my colleagues. Wow!

To some, it may seem a little strange that I have become starstruck over a nurse. Honestly, I think it's a little strange, as well. Children are not taught to idolize their favorite authors or scientists or scholars, but I have a childlike fascination with the nurse researchers whose work I discuss in the papers I write. These are the people I want to be like. They are the role models whose careers I am trying to mirror. They are the names who take my breath away when I see they will be speaking at a conference I am attending. Maybe it's a little nerdy; maybe I'm a geek. Or maybe I'm just a young woman who is well on her way to being a great nurse scholar in her own right. My money is on the latter.

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

Life happens!

When I first began writing this blog, I thought I could easily write an entry each week. This overzealous thinking was that of a young woman with too much time on her hands. Yes, I was working a full-time job. Yes, I was involved in leadership positions in various nursing organizations. Yes, I traveled whenever and wherever possible. But I still had lots of time to do other things, and I didn’t see how writing 500-1,000 words per week would weigh me down.

Enter my first year as a PhD student. If you haven’t noticed yet, this is my first blog entry since April. When I began writing this blog, I had no intentions of ever taking that much time off from writing, but life happened.

One of the biggest mistakes I have made on my leadership journey is packing my schedule too tightly. I used to think that if I was sitting around doing nothing, I was wasting my time. I felt as though I needed to be doing something “productive” every minute of every day. I never took into consideration the fact that unforeseen circumstances present themselves at the most inopportune times. I never thought about the possibility of having to cancel prescheduled activities because of a situation that had to be dealt with immediately, or worse, doing those prescheduled things halfheartedly because my mind needed and wanted to be elsewhere.

In the months between my last blog entry and this one, I have learned to lighten the schedule a bit and leave room for those surprise emergencies that inevitably pop up. Sick parents or children, relationship issues, personal illnesses, loss of loved ones, financial crunches—all these things happen, and there is no way to plan for them. It is now clear to me that a good leader will allow his or her schedule to be flexible enough to handle these things, in addition to commitments already made. While we can never predict life’s unfortunate circumstances, we can be better prepared to handle them without fear of dropping the ball in every other area of our lives.

“Don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today.” Good advice! Whether our schedules are jampacked or wide open, it is always best to complete the tasks at hand as soon as possible. When the storms of life come raging at us, we may not have the time, energy or resources to complete the most simple of tasks. We may need to direct all of our attention to the storm and brace ourselves until it passes. Leaving time for unanticipated life events can make those trying times a little less stressful.

If my time away from this blog has taught me nothing else, it has taught me to leave room for the unexpected so that, when it arrives, I will not be in complete disarray. Maybe what I have learned from my misstep will prevent you from making the same mistake when planning your schedule.

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

Stay-at-home mom, with a PhD

Now that I’m coming to the end of my first year as a doctoral student, I’m beginning to wonder what type of position I want to take on once I complete my degree. My dream job is to work as a researcher in teen-pregnancy prevention. I love teaching, so I’d like to do that, possibly on the side. If I could create my own position, I’d work full time as a researcher for a government agency or other non-profit organization and part time as a women’s health nursing instructor. But here’s the catch. I don’t want to work full time right away; I’d much rather spend the first few years after graduation starting a family.

I make no secret about the fact that my desire has always been to be a stay-at-home mother while my children are small. I want to have the opportunity to raise them without interference from a child-development or day-care center, at least until they are ready for preschool. When I make these types of statements aloud, I see the furrowed eyebrows of my colleagues. I used to get offended, but now I think it’s pretty funny. I don’t know why people assume that, just because I am in a doctoral program and want to establish a career in research, I also want to be a full-time career woman. The reality is this: If I am in any position to be a stay-at-home mom, I will be at home with a PhD.

Women have made important strides in employment over the past 50 years. I can appreciate all the struggles they had to go through so that I have the opportunities I have today to climb the corporate ladder. I am keenly aware of present-day gender imbalances in male-dominated career fields, so I understand the difficulties other women go through. I don’t have to deal with too many gender differences as a nurse, I’m thankful to say. (I will admit that I recently became aware that male nurses may come in at a higher salary and move up the ranks quicker than female nurses, but that may be because of their desire to show they are as capable of being good nurses as women. Who knows?) But my appreciation of past and present struggles of women who work outside the home is not enough of a reason for me to give up my own dream of being a stay-at-home mom.

One of the great things about nursing, especially for a person like me, is the flexibility the nursing profession offers. Even as a full-time staff nurse, I could work two to three days per week (12-hour shifts, of course). To be a full-time employee, yet stay at home four or five days per week is a pretty good deal, if you ask me. There’s also the option to work from home. As one of my classmates stated, “If you have a computer, you’ll be fine.” There are lots of nursing jobs that allow nurses to work from home. I can teach online, for example. There, I get the best of both worlds—I can continue to gain experience in my career and still be a stay-at-home mother.

If I had to give my honest opinion, I’d say earning a PhD opens—not closes—the door to stay-at-home motherhood. Nurses with doctoral degrees have many more career options than nurses who practice at the bedside. It is also my opinion that women should not feel pressured to work full time outside of their homes just because gender inequalities are less today than in times past. Women should feel free to work outside the home, stay at home to care for their children or otherwise work at home as they please.

A mother who chooses to stay at home the first few years of her child(ren)’s life/lives is no less committed to her career than a mother who chooses to return to her place of employment following her six-week postpartum visit. As members of a profession that is comprised mostly of women, we shouldn’t judge one another for wanting to take time away from our careers to tend to our families, nor should those of us who do make that choice impose our beliefs of familial importance on those who choose to sidestep traditional maternal roles to be full-time career women. To each her own.

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

Learning to balance

Here I am, two-thirds of the way through my first year as a doctoral student, and I still have most of my sanity. Following my first quarter, I realized that, if I continued to approach school with such a serious and unwavering dedication to being the best, I would probably be carried out of class someday on a stretcher. I entered my doctoral program believing I had to prove to myself that I was worthy of acceptance into the program. Now, I’m not sure why I felt this way because, quite honestly, no one had ever uttered such words to me, but I was a woman on a mission.

You see, I’ve always enjoyed the extracurricular aspects of school far more than the academic side of things. I did my work because, if I didn’t maintain a 2.0 GPA, I couldn’t cheer, or I would be discouraged from participating in the school musical or, worst of all, my mother would not be pleased. I managed to always maintain an A-/B+ average without much effort. Well, now that I was going to be a doctoral student, I planned to put forth all the effort I could muster up.

During that first quarter, I woke up early to read and went to bed late for the same reason. I set aside a few days each week when I would not allow myself to leave my apartment. On those days, I would read and write. My pen and my highlighter were my best friends. The only social outlets I had for most of the first quarter of the program were random text exchanges with my friends and the time I spent on Facebook. I would not allow myself to spend face-to-face time with my peers, because I thought that time could be better used reading. I didn’t even go to the gym. I convinced myself an hour spent on the elliptical machine was one hour that should be spent reading. I came out of my first quarter with a 4.0 GPA, but I paid a great price for it. It took most of the five weeks of my winter break to recoup from the psychological and emotional damage I had done to myself.

Enter the second quarter. I made a promise to myself that I would not be so focused on school that I was unable to enjoy the other parts of my life. I decided that each Sunday after church, I would spend the rest of the day doing whatever I wanted to do. I had many lazy Sunday afternoons. I went out to lunch with my friends, and spent time visiting with my family. I also didn’t beat myself during the week if I didn’t read every single word of the assigned reading, or if I took the long way home on a sunny afternoon. I told myself the work would get done. I didn’t need to plan out every minute of every day to ensure I remained on task. I even told myself that it would be OK to start dating again and, as fate would have it, I reconnected with my high school sweetie in a chance meeting. (Really, the story sounds like something out of a romance movie.) We are involved in a relationship again, and I am happier than ever.

So, I ended up with one B+ this quarter. That’s OK; I’m still learning how to balance my life. I must admit I was probably a little too lax this quarter. I dare not write some of the things I did (or didn’t do) as it relates to my schoolwork, and I have learned that writing a paper the night before it’s due may not be the best way to go about it. But hey, it’s a learning process, right? I have learned that life does not end because school begins. We have to be able to incorporate school into our lives and not make school the center of our universe. In the four years that I will spend as a doctoral student, I can’t allow myself to be only a student and nothing else. A lot can happen in four years. My entire life shouldn’t be put on hold because I’m working toward a doctoral degree. Nor should my friends or family be neglected. It’s all about balance. Balancing my life and prioritizing what is truly important has become a great lesson for me. They say a taught lesson is a bought lesson. We’ll just say I paid for this one in cash.

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

Scholarship Alert!!! 10 tips for success in applying for scholarships (Part Two)

I assume you have read the first part of this two-part blog post, so I’ll jump right in where I left off.

Tip No. 6. If you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready.

Once you begin applying for scholarships, keep a file filled with previous applications; your large-essay document; smaller essays you have written for each application; a list of all your extracurricular activities, awards, honors and letters; letters of recommendation and transcripts. There may come a time when you receive a scholarship application days before it is due for submission. If you have a file with all of the right information, completing the application will be a piece of cake. For this reason, make sure that some of your letters of recommendation say “To whom this may concern,” or some other generic heading. This allows you to submit the letter with any application. If you are going to use the generic-heading option, be sure to pay close attention to the date. You don’t want to send a letter in September that has a January date. Always have three or four copies of your transcripts on hand. This makes life a lot easier when applying for scholarships—trust me. If you have everything at your disposal, applying for scholarships is no longer a cumbersome task. An application can be in and out of your hands within an hour or so.

Tip No. 7. Work the minimal amount of time possible.

The more time you spend working, the less time you have to search for scholarships, build relationships with your professors and participate in extracurricular activities. It is imperative that you use the time you spend in school to focus on school. You have the rest of your life to work; work isn’t going anywhere. Unless you are a nontraditional student who has a spouse and/or children, do not work anymore than is absolutely necessary to pay tuition and bills. Shopping and vacationing is unimportant right now (this is coming from someone who loves to do both). You will only be in school for a few short years, so use this time wisely. You will never again have the opportunity to be fully engrossed in campus life unless, of course, you return to school fulltime to obtain another degree. At this point in your life, if school is all you really have to worry about, then only worry about school. Don’t take on responsibilities you don’t have to take on. Spend your time studying, going to school activities and providing community service. You will not regret it, and it will make your scholarship application stand out.

Tip No. 8. Apply, apply, apply!

No one who didn’t apply for a scholarship ever received one—well, not to my knowledge. Apply for every scholarship for which you are eligible. This will greatly increase your chances of receiving at least one scholarship. I have found that the more scholarships for which I applied, the easier it was to apply for additional scholarships. I also found that the more scholarships I was awarded, the more scholarships I continued to receive. It was a law of attraction that I had never experienced. So again, apply, apply, apply! You can’t go wrong by applying for a scholarship. What’s the worst that can happen? Even if you aren’t awarded the scholarship, you have gained experience, and the next application will be that much easier. If you don’t see the results of your hard work immediately, don’t give up. Continue to apply until you begin to see results. Your hard work will pay off in the end.

Once you begin to receive scholarships, pay close attention to my last two tips.

Tip No. 9. Stick to a tight budget.

As an undergraduate nursing student, I would not have survived had I not had the good sense to create a budget. Once I received enough scholarships to quit my job, my budget became VERY important. I only received scholarship money once per year, for the most part. I had to figure out how to make the money I received in September last until the next September. Unless you receive a scholarship that pays out each semester (or quarter) or unless the scholarship money is disbursed in a nontraditional fashion, you will only receive the money prior to the beginning of the fall semester or quarter.

Here is my advice for how to deal with this situation: Figure out how much you spend each month on rent, necessary bills, gas, groceries, etc., and move that amount (plus maybe $200 for incidentals) from a savings account to a checking account each month. Spend only the money in the checking account! You have to make yourself believe that the money in the savings account doesn’t exist. This is what I did when I was in college, and it worked well for me. In fact, I still use this tip for managing money.

Tip No. 10. Become more involved.

Once the scholarships start to roll in, show your gratitude by doing more on your campus and in your community. The purpose of scholarships is to provide you with added income so you don’t have to work so much, and you can focus on your academic experience. This doesn’t mean just spending more time studying; it means spending time being involved in things you may not otherwise have been involved in, if you had to spend all your extra time working.

The 10 tips I have given you are not exclusive to undergraduate students. In fact, I still follow each of these tips myself, and my undergraduate career ended more than seven years ago. At the master’s level, scholarships are not as easy to come by, but fellowships are plentiful for doctoral students. At each level of your education, these tips are helpful.

If you have any questions about what is written in this two-part blog post, please post in the “comment” section below. Be sure to share these tips with your classmates and colleagues. Don’t keep them to yourself. And good luck on your applications!

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

Scholarship Alert!!! 10 tips for success in applying for scholarships (Part One)

The cost to attend college and, especially, to major in nursing, can be very high. Of course, obtaining an associate degree in nursing will be less expensive than obtaining an entry-level master’s degree in nursing, although both are prelicensure programs. I know the struggle to pay for education, and I have been very successful at funding mine. I try to encourage others to apply for scholarships and grants, whenever possible.

Case in point: In an undergraduate nursing class, for which I was teacher’s assistant this past quarter, I presented “Tiffany’s Link of the Week” at the end of almost every session. I would show the students one or two websites of use to them as nursing students, paying special attention to the scholarship or funding section of the website. Following the end of the quarter, several students asked me to speak with them in more detail about the process of applying for scholarships. Instead of e-mailing each student individually, I decided to write this blog post. (This is Part One.) To all my awesome freshmen and transfer students, this is for you!

Tip #1. Condense your scholarship search to increase the likelihood of receiving the monetary award.
There are many scholarships and grants available for nursing students. There are scholarships for students who live in a certain area, attend a certain school and have parents who are military veterans, and there are scholarships for students of every ethnicity and religion, and for both sexes. Once I decided I wanted to use scholarships to fund my education, I used a strategy in searching for them. I only applied for scholarships that were given to students who lived in my city, county or state; majored in nursing; were African-American; were members of my student or professional organizations; or attended my school. I realized early on in my scholarship journey that sticking to these categories decreases the number of applicants I compete against and, in turn, increases my chances of being awarded the scholarship.

Tip #2. Network, network, network!

I was never shy about telling people I was looking for scholarships. My professors, my campus mentor, members of my church, people in the scholarship office—everybody knew I was on the lookout for scholarships. When people are aware of your needs, they are willing to help you reach your goals. I became very familiar with the staff in my campus scholarship/financial aid office. I visited the office frequently during what I like to call “scholarship season.” I noticed that most scholarships become available after January 1 and are due on or before April 15. During this time, I made trips to the scholarship/financial aid office weekly and perused the application stacks. I would take only those applications that met my criteria (see Tip #1), and I’d begin the application process immediately. For more tips on successful networking, see my RNL article "Going up? Intentional networking works."

Tip #3. Write a winning essay.

Most essays ask for the same types of information: What past adversities have you overcome? What are your professional/career goals? What extracurricular activities do you participate in? How will this scholarship help you achieve your academic/professional goals? What awards or honors have you received? My advice is to create a document that answers each of these questions at length. Then you can easily pull information from that document to meet the criteria—subject and word count, for example—of the specific scholarship for which you are applying. If you begin with a large document, it is a lot easier to narrow the essay portion down. I recommend writing one page to answer each question. This will give you more than enough information to pull from when writing an essay for a scholarship application.

Tip #4. Secure strong letters of recommendation.

I have always been very relationally driven. I enjoy establishing academic relationships and mentorships with my professors, so I have never had much of an issue receiving letters of recommendation. If you don’t know any of your professors, choose one or two whose classes you really enjoy, and get to know them outside of class. Meet with them during their office hours, e-mail them to let them know how you’re doing in your classes and converse with them about your future goals in the nursing profession. If professors know you on a personal level, they are far more likely to write a letter of recommendation for you than for classmates of yours about whom they know nothing. When a letter is written, keep copies of it, either electronically or in hard-copy form, and always ask the professor to save the letter on their computer, as well. I’ve learned that most scholarship applications ask for one or two letters of recommendation. The only application I have ever completed that required four letters was my application to UCLA. The point here is, if you have three or four professors who will write letters for you, you’re set!

Tip #5. Remember that extracurricular involvement is important.

Scholarship donors want to give to students who are well rounded. It’s great that you have a 4.0, but what do you do, other than study? Membership in a campus or community group shows you have interpersonal skills, especially if you hold a leadership position in that group. It also shows you desire to give, as well as receive. Giving of your time to a sorority, student nursing organization or community service group is very telling of the type of person you are. You don’t have to be involved in everything, but you should be actively involved in something. Narrow down what it is that you love to do and find a club on campus that is filled with other students who love to do it, too. If there is no club, start one! I started several clubs during my time as an undergraduate and, more recently, as a doctoral student. Trust me, it’s a lot easier than you think. You don’t want to join a group just so it looks good on your application; you want to join to give yourself something enjoyable to do outside of school.

I don’t want to overwhelm you, so I’ll save Tips 6-10 for my next post, but be sure to read them. And, if you haven’t already “liked” my nonprofit’s page on Facebook, please do so. I often post scholarships, using the tagline “Scholarship Alert!!!” The name of my non-profit is Kyrie Mentoring Academy. You can access the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/KyrieMentoringAcademy.

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