A Motivational Profile of Nurses Who Pursue Doctoral Education

The purpose of this study is to describe the motivational orientation and factors of nurses pursuing doctoral education. Advanced education for nurses, is at the forefront of the healthcare environment. The need for nurses to pursue additional education is imperative to the professionalization of the discipline of nursing and the healthcare environment. Furthermore, characteristics of nurses who seek advanced education are poorly understood. This information is critical to planning long-term strategies for US nursing education (Kovner, Brewer, Katigbak, Djukic, & Fatehi, 2012). Secondary to the need to understand characteristics of nurses pursuing advanced education this research study, will describe the motivational orientation and factors of nurses pursuing doctoral education. The descriptive correlational design will be utilized to examine concepts relating to motivation in registered nurses pursuing doctoral education. A sample of registered nurses enrolled in either a PhD or DNP educational program in the southeastern region of the United States from various universities will be invited to participate in the study. Participants will be divided into two groups: (1) registered nurses seeking the PhD; and (2) registered nurses pursuing the DNP. A power analysis was performed to identify the needed sample size. A total of 250 completed questionnaires are needed for the sample so the targeted sample size is 1,000 to ensure that a sufficient number of surveys will be available for analysis. Data collection: Potential participants for the research study were sent an email invitation for participation in the study by a contact person within each of the randomly selected institutions. Data was collected using the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) and a demographic data sheet. Data collection occurred during a 30 day time frame using Qualtrics to arrange collected information. After data collection was completed, Qualtrics data was then exported directly into Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows version 22 for analysis.