The problem I have encountered is that funding agencies want a PhD PI and there just aren't that many nurse - PhD's. I am at least 3 years away from my dissertation but that doesn't figure into it. That's how my boss, who is a PhD physicist, became PI of a quality of life study.
Life is strange.
And I think we nurses are sometimes too ethical for our own good. Secondly, I disagree that data collectors might as well be the PI - those are 2 different roles. All rights reserved.