Curriculum
Required Courses
The PhD in Nursing consists of at least 64 semester credit hours of coursework beyond the baccalaureate degree or 46 semester credit hours beyond a master’s degree plus dissertation credit hours.
BSN Students
The following courses are pre-requisites to any doctoral level courses. All BSN students must complete the following 18 semester hours of master's level courses:
| Courses | Semester Hours |
|---|---|
| NURS 605 Foundations for Advanced Practice Nursing(on-line) | 3 |
| NURS 606 Health Care Systems (on-line) |
3 |
| NURS 609 Research and Scientific Writing | 3 |
| NURS 652 Statistics or PHST 500 Introduction to Biostatistics |
3 |
| NURS 654 Informatics (on-line) |
3 |
| NURS 657 Health Promotion and Illness Prevention Across the Lifespan (on-line) | 3 |
| Total Semester Hours | 18 |
BSN and MSN Students
BSN and MSN students are required to complete the following doctoral level courses:
| Courses | Semester Hours |
|---|---|
| NURS 612 Philosophy of Science |
3 |
| NURS 700 Theoretical Basis of Nursing | 3 |
| NURS 720 Seminar in Advanced Nursing Leadership | 3 |
| NURS 710 Research Methodology I: Qualitative Research Methods | 3 |
| NURS 711 Research Methodology II: Quantitative Design | 3 |
| NURS 712 Research Methodology III: Nursing Measurement | 3 |
| NURS 713 Research Methods Practicum | 2 |
| NURS 721 Leadership Practicum | 1 |
| NURS 730 Health Policy: An Evidence-Based Approach | 3 |
| NURS 731 Health Policy Practicum | 1 |
| NURS 740 Dissertation Seminar | 3 |
| Advanced Statistics ( this includes a series of 3 courses) | 9 |
| Cognates ( Must be taken external to the School of Nursing) | 9 |
| Total credit hours for MSN to PhD | 46 |
Total credit hours for BSN to PhD |
|
MSN Applicants
It's strongly recommended that all applicants have completed a three-credit hour masters-level statistics course with a grade of "B" (3.0) or higher within the last five years. The Associate Dean for Graduate Programs and Research maintains a database of available statistics courses that may be used as a refresher course. Learn more about the basic core competencies need for the PhD program.
Sample Programs of Study
- BSN-PhD Full-time Program of Study [PDF]: (This program of study can be completed in 3 calendar years, plus 1 year of dissertation study).
- MSN-PhD Full-time Program of Study [PDF]: (This program of study can be completed in 2 calendar years, plus 1 year of dissertation study).
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