Creating an Infrastructure to Advance Nursing Practice and Care for Veterans

The infrastructure in healthcare to advance nursing practice and Veteran care includes doctorally prepared nurses: the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). Including doctorally prepared nurses in clinical nursing departments is a focus for nurse executives as they strive to reach the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Future of Nursing goal.1 This goal directs nurses to achieve higher levels of education and training to meet increasingly complex patient care needs. With the surge in returning Veterans, expanding the number of doctorally prepared nurses is a priority for Veterans Health Administration (VHA) as well as for non-VA healthcare providers responding to the Joining Forces Campaign2 to care for returning Veterans in the private sector. The authors sought to understand how VA and non-VA PhD and DNP nurses on different career trajectories respond to this challenge.