Challenges to research productivity of doctoral program nursing faculty

The Institute of Medicine, responding to a national health care crisis and related nursing labor force concerns, has called for an increase in the proportion of registered nurses with baccalaureate or higher degrees to 80% and a doubling of the number of nurses with doctorates by 2020. Simultaneously, large numbers of senior faculty are starting to retire, whereas the movement of doctorally prepared nurses into academia is insufficient to replace them. Issues associated with the efforts of nursing programs to increase their capacity to respond to the Institute of Medicine's recommendations, particularly the effect on scholarly productivity among nursing faculty in doctoral programs, are examined in this article. Creative strategies for promoting scholarly productivity among doctoral program faculty are identified.