Making explicit the development of PhD-prepared nurses to steward the discipline

•Preparing PhD nurse graduates for leadership is important for stewarding the discipline.•Stewarding a discipline involves generation of knowledge.•Conservation of history and fundamental ideas inherent in the discipline is important.•Dissemination of and sharing new knowledge to broad audiences is a component of stewarding a discipline.•The process of stewarding is unique to each PhD-prepared nurse depending on prior experiences and expertise.•Stewarding the discipline can be done by developing policy, critiquing the status quo, and conducting research.