ABSTRACT
The landmark report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health set a goal for the nursing community to increase the proportion of nurses with a baccalaureate degree from 50 to 80% by 2020 (Institute of Medicine, 2010). Nursing has witnessed a dramatic growth in the number of enrollments in accelerated baccalaureate of science in nursing programs for nonnursing graduates (Fang, Bednash, & DeWitty, 2012). Financing these degrees can be challenging. Many second-degree students no longer qualify for the federal grant programs and may have exhausted their federal undergraduate loan limits. The population for the current study is made up of accelerated baccalaureate of science in nursing students who received scholarships through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) New Careers in Nursing (NCIN) Scholarship Program and the schools of nursing they have attended. This is a descriptive study. An analysis of RWJF NCIN scholars' survey responses reveals that while 90% of RWJF NCIN scholars incurred debt to finance their programs, the scholarship makes a difference in helping them to earn their degrees. A review of RWJF NCIN schools of nursing grantee reports establishes that, for many schools of nursing, the recognition and support of an external funding organization helps them to leverage additional funding opportunities.
ABSTRACT
This article presents the development and psychometric analysis of the Doctoral Readiness Self-Assessment for Doctoral Study. This survey was developed as the first step of a Web-based, on-line mentoring platform for nurses who are considering a doctoral degree program. By identifying and anticipating the predictors and barriers of success in doctoral nursing education, including practical (finances, time, geographical restriction) and personal factors (motivation, attitudes, perceived ability to navigate the application process), students are guided through a self-reflective process to determine readiness. Factor analysis revealed that interest, readiness, and support represent 3 distinct factors that may be used for additional analysis to predict future enrollment in doctoral nursing degree programs. The internal reliability analysis revealed that removing 3 items from the 15-item scale increased Cronbach's alpha from 0.75 to 0.80, and these factors explained 51.25% of variance. The self-assessment results can inform faculty's work as they mentor and guide students through the application, admission, and financial support processes for doctoral study.
