ETSU’s nursing students will finally have the chance to pursue a doctoral degree in their field beginning this summer.
“The faculty and administration of the college of nursing have been planning for the program probably a good five or six years, and it’s a logical evolvement of our graduate program,” said Dr. Patricia Smith, associate dean for academic programs.
The Tennessee Higher Education Commission approved the new program Nov. 29. The Tennessee Board of Regents approved the program almost two years ago, but the College of Nursing had to wait to receive approval from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, “the highest authority.”
According to Smith, the college of nursing has had a master’s program since 1991 and a doctoral program was needed to prepare the students for nursing roles at a higher level.
“The doctoral program will prepare graduates to serve as nurse educators, nurse administrators and expert clinicians,” she said. “Those are the three roles for which we are preparing right now and then obviously the doctoral level will prepare them to be clinical scientists which means they are able to conduct clinically applied research.
The D.S.N. differs from a Ph.D. degree in nursing.
The Ph.D. is usually centered on knowledge development or theory development.
Smith said the D.S.N. is called a professional doctorate, and it focuses more on the practical application of research, Smith said.
The D.S.N. program will begin this summer, and full-time students will be able to complete their doctorate in three years. There will be two or three courses offered each semester so classes can be taken one day a week.
“We have developed a very user-friendly format, and we’ll be working with the students to make it more user-friendly,” she said.
The new doctoral program comes at a very important time because of the recent shortage of nurses in this area.
“The doctoral program is very critical in that there’s a great demand for nursing faculty, and you have to have nursing faculty to produce nurses to work in hospitals and in all the areas where there’s a shortage,” she said. “It’s providing the graduates out there who can be the leaders in the health-care system and solve the problem.”
There are only 80 doctoral nursing programs in the country and many of those have been established in the last 10 years, she said.
Smith said that the D.S.N at ETSU is unique because of its strong focus on interdisciplinary collaboration and the large amount of faculty who conduct research.
The faculty run nine nurse-managed clinics that will give the D.S.N. students an opportunity to do their clinically based research within those clinics.
The College of Nursing is now accepting applications for the program and the deadline for the applications is March 1.
However, Smith said applications will be accepted until the classes are full.
“We’ve had lots interested, and we already have applications,” she said. “We’re eager to start classes this summer.

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