PLENARY SESSION 2: Doctoral Education: Decisions, Experiences, and Emotions

Description/Overview: This session will describe the early findings from the first set of interviews for this mixed method descriptive research study. Master’s prepared nurse educators, current doctoral students (DNP and PhD) and recent doctoral graduates were interviewed about their decisions to attend (or not) a doctoral program, their experiences as a doctoral student and an MSN prepared educator and a recent graduate and the impact of their decisions on their role in nursing education. The data were analyzed for themes, consistencies and inconsistencies by the research team and used to inform the development of an electronic survey. Findings from these interviews reveal much about the current state of doctoral education in nursing and will be shared with the audience.