Developing a nursing doctorate for the 21st century.
Nursing in the next century will reflect changes in the health care system, and although the profession has made great strides in preparing nurse researchers, the current system has a serious gap that must be addressed; that of preparing clinical leaders. The article describes the need for a practice-focused doctoral curriculum that will produce a new type of senior clinician or expert practitioner to fill this gap. The envisioned graduates will be skilled in clinical decision making and information processing and will effect changes at both the micro- and macro-levels of the system. There is a clear future need to expand the number of primary care providers. The faculty required for their education must be doctorally prepared nurses who are themselves clinically proficient. The research and practice doctorates should be differentiated by faculty, the program of studies, resources, and placement/expectation of graduates. The article includes a model curriculum plan.
Starck
P L
PL
University of Texas Health Science Center, School of Nursing, Houston 77030.
Duffy
M E
ME
Vogler
R
R
D002983:Clinical Competence; D003479:Curriculum; D003657:Decision Making; D004511:Education, Nursing, Graduate / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000639:trends*; D005544:Forecasting; D007857:Leadership; D008606:Mental Processes; D016294:Models, Nursing; D017146:Models, Organizational; D015399:Nursing Research / Q000193:education; D016730:Program Development