Scholarship and socialization: reflections on the first year of doctoral study

The first year of study in our PhD program has both broadened and intensified our knowledge. We have come to expect ourselves to attain better understandings of any given issue or topic within its attendant context and within the larger context of our profession. We have begun to appreciate and to strive for the clarity, thoroughness, and precision of thought and analysis that typify the nurse scholar. We are beginning to recognize who the nurse scholar is, why we want to emulate this person, and how we can become this person. As members of the fourth generation, we are now beginning, through our doctoral program, to live the vision of scholars who preceded us. To fulfill this vision, we understand that learning is a lifelong process that does not end with achievement of the doctorate or with postdoctoral study, but that it is continually evolving. We recognize the crucial role of research in nursing, but temper this recognition with the knowledge that research must progress in a planned manner dovetailing with existing research lest it fail to strengthen the web of nursing knowledge.