Ask an NP – Pros and Cons for PhD and DNP

00:00 So, I have not personally, really looked into pursuing a doctorate in nursing, whether that's through a PhD or a DNP.

00:09 I mean, I considered it when I was in nurse practitioner school, they kind of, you know, through the thing at the end there.

00:13 They're like, "Hey, if you want to add one more year, like we can do this, and you can have your doctorate." I have not because I didn't see the benefit, in terms of nurse practitioners right now.

00:23 I have my master's and I would have gotten the same exact job and I would have been paid the exact same.

00:29 So for me, and I wasn't going to gain a specific skill that I saw, like, "Oh, if I go back to school, I'm going to get extra hours in a family practice setting or maybe I'm going to be able to do a different rotation in orthopedics and really gain a new specialty.

00:43 So for me, doing all the extra research and stuff that wasn't going to bolster up my career in any way.

00:49 It was just going to kind of cost me a lot of money.

00:51 And I have small kids.

00:52 Like, at this point, it wasn't worth it.

00:54 In the future, you know, maybe you can teach with a doctorate.

00:58 That could be appealing.

00:59 But for me at the time, it just wasn't something that was a priority.