New nursing Ph.D. program accepting students
A new Ph.D. program in nursing at MUSC is slated to accept its first students in the fall and is currently accepting applications. The program offers a long-term solution to the nursing shortage.
Dr.
Gail Stuart
There is a severe shortage of doctoral prepared nurses nationally, and university nursing programs are having great difficulty recruiting faculty, according to Gail Stuart, Ph.D., director of the MUSC doctoral program.
“Only one-half of one percent of registered nurses in South Carolina are prepared on the doctoral level,” said Stuart. “And these are the individuals we need to teach and lead the next generation of nurses.”
Prior to MUSC receiving approval for the program, there were only 77 programs in the country offering the Ph.D. degree.
In addition to providing teachers for nursing schools, high level administrators for a variety of health care settings and leaders in the field of clinical research, the new program will place a special emphasis on meeting special needs of vulnerable populations in South Carolina.
For example, African Americans in South Carolina have more hypertension, diabetes and AIDS and poorer health outcomes with these diseases than the population as a whole. Also, there are many rural areas in the state which are medically underserved. There will be an emphasis on clinical and research projects aimed at understanding and serving these vulnerable populations.
MUSC anticipates that six to eight students will be admitted each year to the program which is open to nurses holding a master's degree. Students will have the option of pursuing the program either full- or part-time. It will take approximately four years to earn the degree attending full-time and about six years part-time.
The only other Ph.D.-level nursing program in South Carolina is at USC. Prior to the new MUSC program, students could receive the Ph.D. in nursing through a joint USC/MUSC program. This proved unsatisfactory since students had to spend a great deal of time commuting, and they were often unable to take advantage of frequent doctoral level seminars in Columbia. There was a resulting demand for a program in Charleston.
“We have a rich environment at MUSC with extensive high quality ongoing
clinical research projects.” said Stuart. “This provides an excellent environment
for a nursing doctoral program. We were fortunate in being able to utilize
existing facilities and faculty, enabling us to provide the program without
incurring additional costs.”