title: Doctoral persistence and doctoral program completion among nurses.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The United States is experiencing a critical shortage of registered nurses, which is due to multiple factors, including a deficit of full-time doctorally prepared nursing faculty.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This review of the literature addresses doctoral persistence and the challenges faced by doctoral nursing students. Themes found in this review included periods of transition, parenthood and outside demands, delays and "marinating" in the data, and positive aspects. These issues need to be addressed in order to increase doctoral student retention and reverse the nursing shortage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterans Affairs, Salem, VA. shannon.cohen@va.gov
authors.forename: Shannon Munro
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Cohen
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004511:Education, Nursing, Graduate / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States