Educating for the future: A national survey of nursing deans about need and demand for nurse researchers

If nursing doctoral programs are to meet the profession's need for research, they must produce scholars with the specific research foci and skills capable of meeting the profession's unique research demands. A national survey of deans and directors of schools of nursing was conducted to determine their opinions about the differing research foci that graduates of nursing doctoral programs should possess. A mall survey instrument was returned by 434 deans and directors of baccalaureate and higher degree programs who were querled about current and future need, contribution, and funding capability of researchers prepared with five different foci: psychosocial processes, biophysical processes, health care delivery systems and administration, education, and methodology and instrumentation. Deans recommended diverse research foci for both current and future researchers and indicated optimism about future funding for research. Although deans rated current and future professional contributions of researchers in the psychosocial domain most highly, they indicated that they believed current and future funding potential was greatest for biophysical researchers. These deans predicted that all types of nursing research endeavors will become increasingly important to the profession and the development of its theory base.