Diversifying the Pipeline Into Doctoral Nursing Programs: Developing the Doctoral Advancement Readiness Self-Assessment.

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.