Doctoral Pragrams in Nursing

Doctoral programs prepare nurses for roles as academicians, administrators, advanced clinical scientists, researchers, consultants, and indepandent practitioners. Doctoral degrees in nursing may be professional degrees (EdD, DNS, ND) or research degrees (PhD).

The first doctoral program in nursing was offered at Columbia University in 1924; the graduates received an EdD. Other doctoral programs developed slowly and the next school to offer a doctorate, a PhD, was New York University in 1934. During the 1960sdoctoral programs in nursing science (DNS) were established in response to the need for nursing scientists and academicians. The professional degree (DSN) was developed at this time as a result of a lack of (1) prepared faculty, (2) a well-defined knowledge base, and (3) a research record required to establish research degrees. In the 1970s there were four doctoral programs with a nursing major, expanding to 27 in the mid-1980s. As of 1989 there were 44 schools of nursing with doctoral programs.

Educational Setting

Doctoral programs in nursing are offered in colleges and universities with graduate programs in nursing. The school of nursing may be aligned with the university and follow an academic model for doctoral education, or be located in a health sciences setting with a professional model focus.

Entry Requirements

Admission requirements to doctoral programs are set by the nursing program and the college or university. They may include completion of a MS program, evidence of scholastic achievement, and admission examinations such as the graduate record examination (GRE). Evidence of professional accomplishment and writing skills may also be required. Entry requirement for the nursing doctorate is a BS.

Educational Base

Doctoral programs in nursing build on the educational base of advanced arts, sciences, and nursing of the MSN program. Depending on the educational setting, the educational base for the program may follow an academic model or a professional model.

Curriculum

There are four types of nursing doctoral programs, the Doctor of Nursing Science (DNSc, DSN); the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), which is the most common; the Doctor of Education (EdD); and theNursing Doctorate (ND). The curriculum design of the doctoral degree depends on the purpose of the program, program objectives, and the degree granted. A typical plan includes 90 credits with an inquiry component (statistics, research methods) of 15 to 18 credits, a concentration in the nursing major (theory development, substantive focus courses) of 30 to 35 credits hours, and an external cognate minor, related to the area of concentration in the major, of 12 to 15 credits. Other credits for the degree are obtained from elective and dissertation credits.

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