APPLIED DOCTORAL DEGREES
SUPPLEMENTAL CRITERIA
For Non-Research Universities
(Submit One Copy with a Revised Formal Proposal)
Institution: Kennesaw State University
Institutional Contact (President or Vice President for Academic Affairs): Dr. Ken Harmon
Date: 10/10/13
School/Division: WellStar College of Health and Human Services
Department: WellStar School of Nursing
Departmental Contact: Dr. Tommie Nelms
Name of Proposed Program/Degree Inscription: PhD in Nursing Program
Degree: PhD
Major: Nursing
CIP Code: 51.1608
Anticipated Starting Date: Fall, 2014
Applied Doctoral Degrees – Points of Clarification
Please describe how the institution meets each of the qualifying principles below:
1. Proposals must clearly demonstrate high and sustained market demand for the
professional degree.
As the prospectus outlines Kennesaw State University’s (KSU) proposed PhD in nursing
program will fill unmet needs for more nurses, more nursing faculty, and more doctorally
prepared nurses. With greater than three million members, the nursing profession is the
largest segment of the nation’s healthcare workforce. At the front lines of patient care
nurses can play a significant role in helping to realize the objectives of the Affordable
Care Act. As a means of facilitating the Affordable Care Act passed by Congress in 2010,
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) undertook a two
year study of nursing in 2008 and produced a report of the findings in 2011 entitled The
Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. One of the key messages from
the findings was that “Nurses Should Achieve Higher Levels of Education and Training
through an Improved Education System”. Study authors recognized shortages of nurses
as primary care providers, nursing faculty, and nurse researchers as a barrier to advancing
the profession and improving the delivery of care to patients, and recommended doubling
the number of nurses with doctorates by 2020 as a means to increase the ranks of nursing
faculty who would serve as leaders and researchers, as well as educate the next
generation of primary care nurses. KSU’s PhD in nursing program will directly address
the IOM recommendations with a focus on preparing nursing scholars/educators who will
assume leadership roles in nursing education and health policy within the context of
responses to health disparities and population based health care. Graduates of the
program will also contribute to increasing the numbers of doctorally prepared nurses.
Given that the majority of nurses with research doctorates are employed as nursing
faculty, preparation for leadership in nursing education is one focus of the PhD in
nursing program at KSU. The latest data (2012-2013) from the American Association of
Colleges of Nursing (AACN) indicate that 70 percent of sitting nursing faculty will retire
by 2020. Nursing programs across the country currently report a 57 percent vacancy rate
in full-time nursing faculty and of that number the greatest numbers of vacancies are in
positions which require a master’s degree in nursing with a doctorate preferred (32%) or
positions in which an earned doctorate is required (56%). In addition to lack of funds for
new faculty and inability to recruit qualified faculty because of marketplace competition,
schools of nursing report that “qualified applicants for faculty positions are unavailable in
our geographic area.” The most critical issue faced by schools of nursing related to
faculty recruitment is the “limited pool of doctorally prepared faculty” (33%). Other
critical issues noted by nursing schools regarding faculty recruitment are growing faculty
retirements and difficulties in finding qualified replacements for retired faculty. AACN
further reports that the less than 450 research doctoral graduates per year nationwide do
not begin to keep pace with the numbers of nursing faculty retirements anticipated in the
next five years. As of 2010 Georgia had 2000 doctorally prepared nurses (this number
includes PhDs, DNSs, EdDs and DNPs). Therefore in order to meet the IOM
recommendation to double the number of nurses with doctorates by 2020 would require
another 2000. This number however would not account for the large numbers of
doctorally prepared nurses and nurse educators who are scheduled to retire within the
next seven years.
The increase in nursing faculty vacancies presents an impediment to solving the chronic
shortage of nurses. While the nursing shortage has eased somewhat due to the recession,
the U.S. nursing shortage is projected to grow to 260,000 RNs by 2025; making it the
largest nursing shortage in the country since the mid-1960s.Without nursing faculty
nurses at all levels of educational preparation cannot be educated in sufficient numbers to
meet societal demand. While factors like insufficient clinical placements and preceptors,
along with budget constraints contribute to limited admissions to nursing programs, for
the past several years the AACN has reported numbers of qualified applicants in the
thousands being turned away from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs
annually. For example 75,587 were turned away in 2011
(http://www.aacn.nche.edu/research-data). KSU’s WellStar School of Nursing is, in fact,
one of the most highly sought nursing programs in Georgia and admits only one in six to
one in eight applicants per semester for all the reasons cited.
Greater numbers of nurses with baccalaureate and higher degrees in a practice setting
contribute to better patient outcomes, decreased patient mortality and morbidity, and
fewer healthcare errors (See Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, FAAN, Director, Center for Health
Outcomes and Policy Research, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing). With
increasing demands on the healthcare system and greater numbers of patients and
families with complex health conditions, nurses must achieve higher levels of education
and training to meet these demands. Another recommendation of the IOM report was that
the proportion of nurses with baccalaureate degrees be increased to 80 percent by 2020.
Currently associate degree (2-year) and diploma graduates (2 to 3-year) are 50 percent of
the initial preparation for registered nurses. Doctorally prepared faculty are essential to
the education of baccalaureate nursing graduates and with the recommendation to
increase those numbers from 50 to 80 percent by 2020 more nursing faculty with doctoral
preparation will be needed for generic baccalaureate nursing education, as well as for
education to move associate degree and diploma nurses into and through baccalaureate
programs. Doctorally prepared nurses are also needed to educate nurses at the master’s
and doctoral levels in order to meet the IOM recommendation that at least 10 percent of
all baccalaureate graduates matriculate into a master’s or doctoral program within 5 years
of graduation.
The other focus area of the PhD in nursing program is leadership in responses to health
disparities and vulnerable populations. This focus is significant for many reasons. Health
disparities refer to population differences regarding disease, health outcomes, quality of
healthcare and access to healthcare services that exist across racial and ethnic groups.
Eliminating disparities in health and healthcare has been a challenge and priority for
national and federal organizations for the past two decades (Warnecke et al., 2008). In
fact, one of the overarching goals of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’
Healthy People 2020 is to “achieve health equity, eliminate disparities, and improve the
health of all groups” (DHHS, 2010, p. 3). For years to come, health professionals and
researchers will be called upon to reduce and eliminate health disparities, especially in
light of the projected and continued growth of minority populations who are at the
highest risk for health inequities (Goeppinger, Miles, Weaver, Campbell, & Roland,
2009). For this reason, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2010)
mandated that research-focused doctoral programs “increase the recognition of the
importance of health disparities research” (p. 18) while simultaneously “increasing the
racial, ethnic, and gender diversity of students and faculty” (p. 17). Thus, the inclusion of
health disparities theoretical and research courses is important to accomplishing such
mandates. Since 2002 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has included the
elimination of health disparities in its strategic plans. As such, the current plan
“establishes the health disparities research priorities, objectives, and activities proposed
throughout the agency” (NIH, n.d., p. 9). In particular, the National Institute of Nursing
Research (NINR) “supports research that promotes health equity and eliminates health
disparities by investigating the interplay of behavioral, biological, and environmental
determinants of health and wellness for all populations, including underserved and
resource-limited communities” (2011, p. 7). Preparing doctoral nursing students to
conduct health disparities research will put them in a position to contribute solutions to
one of the nation’s most complex health care issues, while at the same time, giving them
the skills needed to compete for federal monies to fund such research and educate the
next generation of nurses regarding health and healthcare disparities.
2. The proposing institution must clearly demonstrate readiness to implement the degree
program and be prepared to cover all startup costs. Proposals must clearly demonstrate
that the program’s infrastructure is sustainable by having available faculty resources and
other support attributes.
KSU has had a research-focused nursing doctoral program, the Doctor of Nursing
Science (DNS), in place since 2009. The PhD program will replace the DNS program,
thereby requiring no startup costs. The KSU infrastructure has demonstrated its ability to
support the proposed program with available faculty resources and other support
attributes.
3. The proposed doctoral degree curriculum must be of high quality, including
a significant requirement for independent, original research.
The curriculum of the PhD in nursing program, like that of the DNS program, was
developed and implemented according to the tenants of The Indicators of Quality in
Research-Focused Doctoral Programs in Nursing (AACN, 2001) and the essentials
outlined in The Research-Focused Doctoral Program in Nursing Pathways to Excellence
(AACN, 2010). The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) is the
national voice for university and four-year education programs in nursing. Representing
more than 725 member schools of nursing at public and private institutions nationwide,
AACN’s education, research, governmental advocacy, data collection, publications, and
other programs work to establish quality standards for bachelor’s and graduate degree
nursing education, assist deans and directors to implement those standards, influence the
nursing profession to improve health care, and promote public support of baccalaureate
and graduate nursing education, research, and practice. Adhering to these documents is
reflective of high-quality research-focused nursing doctoral education.
All PhD in nursing graduates will have completed a dissertation which is representative
of independent, original research. Students will be guided throughout the program to
identify gaps in the current science of nursing, and propose and conduct a rigorous
research study to add to the body of nursing knowledge.
4. A program may not be proposed if there is a cost-effective and high-quality
alternative delivery approach that could be offered through a proximate
institutional partnership and/or hosting arrangement.
Clearly neither of the other USG PhD in nursing programs, Georgia State University and
Georgia Regents University, can educate the numbers of doctorally prepared nurses
required for the future needs of nursing education and healthcare outlined in the Institute
of Medicine report (2009). KSU’s PhD program will offer another venue to prepare the
numbers of research-focused doctorally prepared nurses recommended to meet national,
as well as regional and local, nursing education and healthcare needs of the future.
The KSU PhD in nursing program will offer students an alternative in terms of focus
areas and format when compared to GSU, the closest USG PhD in nursing program. In
the past applicants to KSU’s DNS program have chosen GSU’s program because they
sought a PhD degree rather than a DNS. Other applicants, however, have chosen KSU
because of the asynchronous online delivery format rather than GSU’s synchronous
delivery format. By providing a PhD degree rather than a DNS, students who want the
PhD degree, in addition to the focus areas of leadership in nursing education and
leadership in health disparities, along with the hybrid, asynchronous format, will have a
viable option in Kennesaw.
5. The institution must demonstrate a history of success in delivering undergraduate and/or
master's degrees in the discipline(s) of the proposed doctorate.
Kennesaw State University began an Associate Degree nursing program in 1969 and the
WellStar School of Nursing (WSON) Baccalaureate Degree nursing program has been in
existence since 1984 (the ASN degree was phased out). The BSN program produces more
new graduate nurses than any nursing program in the state and has some of the highest
nursing licensure examination pass rates in the state. The WellStar Primary Care Nurse
Practitioner program, which began in 1996, draws students from across the state and has
100% pass rates on nurse practitioner certification exams. The Advanced Care
Management and Leadership master’s program began in 2005 and educates nurse
educators and nurse administrators.
6. The institution must demonstrate that establishment of the program will not
diminish its commitment to existing undergraduate and master's degree programs offered.
WSON has been offering a DNS program since 2009 along with continuing to offer high
quality and highly sought BSN and MSN degree programs. Having the DNS program has
been a strong impetus for increased faculty efforts in all areas of scholarly and
pedagogical productivity. The entire school of nursing has become more focused on the
conduct of funded research and the dissemination of research findings, which in turn has
elevated the level of education offered in all nursing programs. One of the biggest draws
to Kennesaw State University is its nursing programs and KSU and WSON are highly
committed to the existing undergraduate and master’s degree nursing programs. Having a
PhD in nursing program will continue to benefit, rather than detract, from the delivery of
high quality undergraduate and master’s nursing education at KSU and is a logical
addition to KSU and the WellStar School of Nursing.
Source: Final Report of the Committee on Professional/Applied Doctorate Degrees (Draft 5)