Profession at the crossroads: A dialog concerning the preparation of nursing scholars and leaders

The purpose of a practice discipline's terminal degree is to develop wise scholars to guide the profession in anticipating and meeting the health-related needs of those served via philosophical, conceptual/theoretical, and empirical inquiry on behalf of professional practice. Each of these dimensions is important for the discipline's ability to meet its obligations to society. However, contemporary circumstances have created a context within which the maturation of the profession may be threatened by an imbalance among the three dimensions of PhD education. Specifically, we discuss the possibility of a tilt toward the empirical at the expense of the other two. Yet, the philosophical and conceptual/theoretical dimensions are those that have permitted core disciplinary knowledge to be developed. We aim to create a dialog about current challenges and the responsibilities of the discipline's scholars for stewardship of the discipline and offer some strategies to ensure balance among the three equally important dimensions.