Longitudinal and cross-sectional study of registered nurses in Sweden who undertake a PhD showing that nurses continue to publish in English after their PhD but male nurses are more productive than female nurses

A review of 649 PhDs undertaken by Swedish nurses and midwives found no evidence that they stop publishing in English after their PhD. The proportion of 70% for any publication in English was similar to that of MDs. A higher proportion of male than female nurses were high publishers of six or more (52% vs. 23%) and eight or more papers (44% vs. 14%) in a 5 year period. The standard of the PhDs of Swedish nurses was comparable to those of other biomedical PhDs and was consistent in pattern over the past two decades. The gender pattern of external examiners of female nurses evolved in that 1992–94, 75% were men, during 1996–97, 54% were men and from 2000 onwards 46% were men. Nurses were examined by foreign examiners in 20% of examinations. They came primarily from Norway and USA.