Building a research career: one grant at a time

Abstract

This issue includes a report of more than 58 years of funding from the American Nurses Foundation (ANF), a key resource for nurse researchers beginning their careers. As reported over 1000 scholars have been supported over the years, many of whom have gone on to successful academic and clinical careers as nurse scientists. The ANF program, along with the Sigma Theta Tau International small grants program has done much to seed the careers of new nurse researchers. And several of the specialty organizations in nursing also offer small grants programs to new and aspiring nurse scientists. A significant development in recent years is the pooling of resources across organizations to capitalize on the momentum of each organization in identifying and nurturing research talent. Many of us have been around the scientific community for long enough to know that starting with a small intramural research grant and then progressing to extramural grant funding helps to propel one to a successful research career. But with the proliferation of research doctoral programs, there are not enough old-time mentors to assist the aspiring scientists. There is no shortage of information available to individuals whether imparted through the regional or national professional research societies, but information alone is not sufficient to build a scientific career. I recently re-read an interesting book about developing a scientific career. Following true to the book's title, the authors argue that “a PhD is not enough” a truism that is definitely reflected in the nursing scientific community (Feibelman, 2011). There must be something valuable here as a new edition hard copy of the book is selling for more than $1400, perhaps a small price to pay for success in a scientific career. The marketing warns one that graduate education, brainpower, and technical prowess are not sufficient to guarantee success in a scientific career. While permanent faculty positions are not scarce in schools of nursing, there is increasing competition for large extramural research funding at the same time that researchintensive schools of nursing expect (and often require) this funding for job security (tenure). This author promises tips on science survival, a skill that is rarely part of formal graduate training. One idea for future development is to pool our resources for science mentors, just as we have for research grant funding. Some of this pooling of mentor resources already happens formally through schools of nursing and professional research societies, but we need to cast the net wider and create a large national (and perhaps global) network of scholars. My repeated experience is that beginning scientists in other countries are often hesitant in seeking mentoring from the established scientists in the United States and other countries in which there has been a longer history of research development. While global conferences serve as an introduction, we need to move beyond the introduction to reap greater benefits and continue our scientific revolution in developing nursing's disciplinary perspective.