The PhD Program in Nursing is designed to prepare nurse scientists for a lifetime of intellectual inquiry through creative scholarship and research. PhD graduates in nursing enjoy careers in academic, social, governmental, and healthcare organizational settings. The PhD program requires students to critically analyze and develop research, educational, policy and administrative strategies that address the needs of both individuals and communities. Students typically may enter the PhD program with either a BSN or MSN.
Most nursing PhD programs include a core foundation in theory development, research, ethics, and knowledge translation, and are further supported by courses in methodology, analysis, measurement, grant writing, epidemiology, and cognates in the student's chosen focal area of interest.
Selected majors/areas of research for a PhD in Nursing include
Effective Care and Health Outcomes
Critical Approaches to Health and Health Care
Nursing Health Systems
Students in a nursing doctoral program must pass a written and oral qualifying exam and then complete and formally defend a doctoral dissertation based on original research. In general, all nursing PhD programs require that successful candidates for the degree demonstrate:
The ability to conduct independent research at a high level, leading to completion of a dissertation which is defended before a committee of scholars. Because examinations given as part of a PhD curriculum assess expert knowledge, they are created and evaluated by a committee of experts, each of whom holds a PhD degree
Proficiency in the tools necessary to carry out this research, including but not limited to computer skills, bibliographic competence, and reading of one or more foreign languages
Mastery of general and specific subject matter in the field of study before a committee of scholars
Requiring three to four years of full-time study depending upon the entry pathway, both part- and full-time study options, along with various delivery modes - residential programs, distance education programs and online programs - are also available. American Ph.D. programs in nursing welcome foreign students. However, fluency in spoken and written English is critically important.
