The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Future of Nursing Scholars program: An overview

Background: Following the 2010 report, "The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health," Robert Wood Johnson Foundation created the Future of Nurs-ing Scholars program to increase the number of PhD-prepared nurses who could assume leadership roles earlier in their careers by shortening the PhD education trajectory and developing leadership skills. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the state of the field at program launch, the program development, and operations.Methods: A descriptive narrative was used, which relied on literature review focused on nursing PhD program completion and presentation of FNS program objectives and findings.Findings: Nurses from 46 schools pursued their PhDs as Future of Nursing Scholars. As of May 1, 2022, 181 scholars graduated with 20 scholars still enrolled. Prelimi-nary results suggest accelerate PhD programs featuring intensive mentoring and financial support can produce well-prepared nurse researchers ready for post-doctoral positions and leadership roles.Discussion: Program attributes including financial support and leadership develop-ment initiatives may be replicated. Cite this article: Kelley, H.J., Bastelica, A., Ladden, M., Boschitsch, M., Giordano, N., Hassmiller, S., & Fair -man, J. (2023, January/February). The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Future of Nursing Scholars pro-gram: An overview. Nurs Outlook, 71(1), 101891. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2022.10.004.