2020 Articles

The Jonas Scholars Program—Evaluation of a decade-long program to advance doctoral-prepared nurses

Carter, Eileen J.; Montalvo, Wanda; Hicks, Althea; Liu, Jianfang; Cato, Kenrick Dwain

Background: The Jonas Scholars Program of Jonas Nursing & Veterans Healthcare aims to advance the pipeline of doctoral-prepared, research-focused, and practice-focused faculty via student financial support and leadership training.

Purpose: Program evaluation of the Jonas Scholars Program. We describe the reach of the program over time, scholar characteristics, and report on graduated scholars that are currently employed in faculty and clinical positions.

Method: Retrospective analysis of administrative records from the Jonas Scholars Program spanning 2008 to 2016.

Findings: The Jonas Scholars Program has grown substantially since its inception. From 2008 to 2016, a total of 1,032 doctoral students at 174 universities across the United States have received financial support through the program. Scholars have a mean age of 38 and nearly two-thirds are enrolled in a research-focused PhD program. Most graduated scholars for which data are available are primarily faculty in nursing schools 185 (30.7%), providing direct patient care 171 (28.4%), or conducting research 118 (19.8%).

Discussion: The Jonas Scholars Program supports the pipeline of a younger generation of doctoral-prepared nurses that are faculty in schools of nursing, providing direct patient care and conducting research.