Nursing doctoral program to start in spring
The University of Indianapolis’ doctoral program in nursing begins next semester, becoming UIndy’s sixth doctoral program. The program boasts a variety of specialty areas including nurse midwife, family health, adult and gerontological, women’s health, neonatal and nursing and health systems leadership.
Associate Professor and Dean of the School of Nursing Anne Thomas said that she is confident the program will grow.
“The program is 35 credits and is for the working nurse,” she said. “Many of the hospitals in the area have been asking for their lead nurses to have doctoral degrees.”
Consisting of mainly online courses, the program is ideal for all students, especially those who have been nurses for years.
“The purpose of the degree is to provide advanced leadership roles to the advanced, practiced nurse,” Thomas said. “They [students] are coming in with expert medical knowledge. This degree will make it possible for these nurses to sit at the table with policymakers.”
Thomas said the program is available for residents of other states, and the School of Nursing just started accepting applicants.
“It’s flexible, it’s affordable, and we have a stellar group of people to teach the classes,” Thomas said.
Associate Professor of Nursing Corinne Wheeler, who is the director of the program, said that eight members of the master’s program faculty will head the crew for the doctoral program.
According to Wheeler, programs such as this one are more necessary for nurses today.
“A lot of changes have happened in the field of nursing,” Wheeler said.
“The AACN [American Association of Critical-Care Nurses] declared that nurses should have an advanced practice degree by 2015.”
Wheeler said many prospective students will not graduate until May 2013, so the first class is likely to comprise mostly practicing nurses.
The program has been two years in the making, and Wheeler and Thomas expect to bring in at least twelve students for the first semester.
“We had a lot of students waiting for this to start. We did not want to keep them waiting,” Wheeler said. “So when we got approved in late August, we wanted to get it open to students as soon as possible.”
