Doctorally prepared nurse scientists play an essential role in creating disciplinary
nursing knowledge, developing innovative and patient‐centred interventions, and translating
nursing knowledge into practice to improve the standards of nursing care (Broome &
Fairman, 2018; Younas & Porr, 2019). Concerns have been raised that existing experienced
nurse scientists are at the age of retirement, and there is global shortage of nurses
in doctoral programmes (Buerhaus, Skinner, Auerbach, & Staiger, 2017; McSweeney, Weglicki,
& García, 2018). There have been calls to action to promote the entry of nurses into
doctoral programmes (Broome & Fairman, 2018; McSweeney et al., 2018). However, nurses
noted barriers such as time, money, work–life balance, family commitments and lack
of motivation to pursue doctoral education (Cavanagh & Alshehry, 2016; Gorczyca, 2013;
Squires, Kovner, Faridaben, & Chyun, 2014). Amongst these barriers, one of the common
barriers is limited knowledge about the application process, limited confidence in
preparing a high‐quality graduate application and fear of rejection (Gorczyca, 2013).
We aim to highlight six factors that may negatively affect nurses' confidence to prepare
excellent doctoral applications and lead to rejection.
1
OVEREMPHASIZING UNIVERSITY RANKING AND DISREGARDING PROGRAMME OF RESEARCH
Choosing a university for a doctoral programme based on Times Higher Education and
Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) university rankings has become an obsession in the current
academic world. Some students merely want to get admission into highly ranked universities
without considering the nature, depth and type of research programmes offered at the
universities. This could be attributed to the notion that getting a doctorate from
highly ranked universities would enable them to get an academic position and become
recognized expert in their research fields. Highly ranked universities may help to
achieve this aim to some extent, but equally important is the alignment of your intended
programme of research and the university's offered programmes. Therefore, it is important
that a university is chosen based on its research programmes, research environment
and the research programme of potential doctoral mentors.
2
SKIMMING THROUGH THE PROFILE OF THE POTENTIAL MENTOR
Merely skimming through the research profile of your potential mentor without gaining
greater insights into the mentor's research work is detrimental to your first impression
as a graduate student. In this case, your email indicating that you are interested
in working with the mentor would end up in the trash. Mentors are interested in candidates
who are responsible, keen readers and learners, and well‐versed about the mentor's
programme of research so that they can mentor you to become excellent scientists.
If you decide to ignore in‐depth reading of your potential mentor's work, it might
come across that you lack the analytical research skills required for successful and
quality doctoral research.
3
SENDING SIMILAR APPLICATION TO MULTIPLE MENTORS OR UNIVERSITIES
Some students may be tempted to send one application to various mentors and universities
without tailoring it to meet the university requirements and matching it to the mentor's
research work. Perhaps, some may send the same application to two or more mentors
in the same university. Such actions may show that you are not devoted to putting
in some extra efforts and looking for loopholes and shortcuts. Compounding this, if
the mentors who received the same application communicated to each other, your prospects
of becoming a doctoral student at that university are even slimmer. Therefore, it
is essential to submit effective, distinct and well‐tailored applications based on
your knowledge of the programme of research of the chosen university and the mentor.
4
OVER RELYING ON YOUR ACADEMIC GRADES FOR SUCCESS
Almost every university has set a minimum level of grade and test scores for admission
into their graduate programmes. The grades and test scores are one of the factors
that strengthen your application. However, it is important that factors such as your
personal and professional goals; your chosen programme of research and its alignment
with the university's mission and research programmes; and your skills (i.e. time
management, research, interpersonal, conflict management) to successfully complete
your doctorate are not overlooked. Academic grades are reflective of your academic
skills, but may not be good indicators of your interpersonal and problem‐solving skills.
5
DOWNPLAYING THE ROLE OF MOTIVATION AND RECOMMENDATION LETTERS
The motivation letter/personal statement and the letters of recommendation from your
previous mentors, employers or colleagues are required for doctoral application across
all the universities. Unrealistic goals and ambitions statements, unwarranted demonstrations
of personal and professional traits, and mismatch of the content of motivation and
recommendation letters could lead to application rejection. The recommendation letters
which provide no information about your potentials and limitations as a future scientist
and offer mere praise of your grades are not useful. Therefore, be wise in choosing
the professionals for writing your recommendation letters and offer a realistic overview
of your motivation to pursue doctoral studies.
6
SUBMITTING A VAGUE AND UNIMPORTANT RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research proposals are always required as part of a graduate application. Universities
and mentors use these proposals to evaluate your research plans and their coherence
with the university's and the mentor's research work. However, the research proposals
are used to assess skills such as logic, scholarly writing, argumentation and research
knowledge, which are essential for successful doctoral education. Submitting vague,
overly ambitious, unstructured and unimportant research proposals that may not add
anything new to the disciplinary nursing knowledge are often disadvantageous to your
application. Even if you have an excellent profile, potential and recommendation to
pursue doctoral studies, the inability to justify the significance of your research
may result in rejection of your application. A good strategy is to structure your
research proposal like an extended structured abstract of the kind you see in the
leading journals. Therefore, make provision—using sub‐headings—for an aim, a background,
a design and methods. This makes your proposal easy to read and it shows you are capable
of thinking logically.
In conclusion, preparing a successful graduate application is daunting. Getting applications
rejected could demotivate you from pursuing a doctoral degree in nursing. Some of
the suggestions offered in this editorial could be useful for preparing excellent
applications. The nursing profession needs more doctoral prepared scientists (Broome
& Fairman, 2018; McSweeney et al., 2018), and a successful doctoral application is
a prerequisite to become a nurse scientist and contribute towards the development
of nursing as a research discipline.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Dr. Parveen Ali is the Editor of Nursing Open.