Strategies to Promote Nurses' Engagement in Clinical Research: Description of Two Nurse Scholar Programs

Innovative programs are needed to build a pipeline of future nurse scientists necessary to generate practice-based evidence for optimal healthcare and to address the serious shortage of PhD-prepared nurses. This paper describes two nurse scholar programs based in one large, Magnet® designated healthcare institution that aim to provide clinical registered nurses (RNs) with mentored research opportunities in order to ultimately build an internal pipeline of practice-based nurse scientists. The Clinical Nurse Scholar Program provides clinical RNs the opportunity to conduct a research study under the mentorship of a senior nurse scientist. The Nursing Research Scholar Program provides a clinical RN enrolled in a PhD program or who recently completed a PhD program with an opportunity to gain enhanced research training and acquire new research skills. These two scholar models have the potential to be replicated in other institutions to enhance the development of future nurse scientists and to address a critical national shortage of PhD-prepared nurse scientists.