Degree Programs: PhD Program Description

The Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing Science program prepares scientists capable of advancing nursing practice and education through research and scholarly activity. Rigorous research training is offered for persons contemplating careers in academia or in health agencies in which designing, planning, and implementing research is a significant expectation.

The Ph.D. in Nursing Science program was initiated in 1978 after a long period of study and planning. The conceptual base of the program is grounded in Nursing Science which seeks to define conditions that are requisite to promote, restore, and maintain health. There are two major inter- related functions: to extend knowledge of various circumstances and environments that influence and alter health of individuals, groups and populations, and to incorporate theories that identify conditions necessary and sufficient for promoting, restoring, and maintaining states of health. The PhD program may be completed in anywhere from three to ten years, with the average time to degree being 4.5 years.

Nursing provides services that assist individuals and/or populations toward the achievement of health and health-directed behaviors. Services of this nature must be based on systematic knowledge about humans in interaction with their life situations with emphasis on understanding the kinds of environments (both internal and external) that are optimum for the promotion, maintenance, and restoration of states of health at both the microscopic and macroscopic levels. This systematic knowledge base is the foundation of Nursing Science and incorporates identification of nursing phenomena and nursing actions relevant to the phenomena, testing of actions and therapies, and use of the results in building nursing science theories.

Program Objectives

• To prepare nursing scholars capable of generating knowledge that is inventive and rigorously tested within a selected area of nursing science;
• To prepare scholars with multiple perspectives of knowing who acknowledge multidisciplinary contributions to knowledge generation;
• To prepare individuals informed by social, cultural and political issues related to their area of scholarship;
• To prepare individuals who will provide leadership in nursing as well as various professional and public groups; and
• To prepare individuals who will test, generate, and extend knowledge relevant to nursing practice within a variety of clinical settings.

Students enrolled in the doctoral program who wish to enhance their learning through experiences of immersion in health care and society in a culture very different from their own may apply for a Citizens of the World Scholar Award.


   Additional PhD Program Information

Download (all documents in pdf format) a PhD brochure (8 pages), a Funding Tips sheet (2 pages)