Is There a “Nursing Degree Inflation”?

When does a master's degree become worthy of being called a "doctorate"? And when does a doctorate mean something other than a "traditional Ph.D."?

Such questions are argued back and forth within the healthcare community these days as some university officials are facing increasing pressures to issue more doctorates than ever to nurses.

Some nursing organizations argue that the new curriculum of nursing master's program is overloaded with high-level graduate courses and thus it might as well be called a "professional doctorate" program.

Due to the technological advances in health care and the need to handle more responsibilities, today's nursing master's programs need to offer more higher-level classes and demand more from its students.

A case in point: some of the master's programs in University of Wisconsin-Madison now require more than 70 credits and take two and a half years to complete. UW requires only 32 credit hours for a normal master's degree.

"It is unfair to give a master's degree for a program that looks more like the pharmacy doctorate and the doctor of physical therapy," is how the dean of the UW-Madison Nursing School put it.

American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) is one professional organization which is pushing for more "professional doctorates" awarded to nurses. The organization claims by 2015 most advanced nurse practitioners will need these professional degrees to do their jobs properly.

However some academicians and college regents beg to differ for the following reasons:

1. The new "professional doctorate" degree (dubbed "Ph.D. Lite" by its irreverent critics) does not require any original research; but the traditional Ph.D. programs do.

2. The traditional Ph.D. takes about 12 years from the first year of college whereas "professional doctorate" takes as little as six years.

For example, Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) takes 6.5 years and replaces Master's of Physical Therapy that requires 6 years to complete. Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD) needs a minimum of 5.5 years of study and replaces the master's program which also takes equally long. Professional Doctorate in Pharmacy (Pharm. D.), awarded in 6 years, has replaced the 5-year Pharmacy Bachelor's program.

A June 2006 study by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools' Higher Learning Commission concluded:

"There seems to be no obvious consistency among the various degrees as to length of study; rigor, substance, or content of the program; or the ultimate utility of the degree to the person who earns it."

The NCACS finding strengthened the hands of those critics who complained how much the new "professional doctorate" programs lacked rigorous academic standards.

University of Wisconsin (UW)-Madison Chancellor John Wiley went on public record with his complaint about the "credential creep" and the alleged pressure for the last 15 years "to take what is basically a master's degree and call it a doctorate."

"We are moving in the direction that everyone who sees a patient will be called 'doctor,'" Wiley added. "This is being done for reasons of professional pride."

Wiley may have a point. Indeed, a new law in California allows nurses with "professional doctorates" to call themselves "Dr." -- as long as they disclose of what.

Katharyn May, Dean of the School of Nursing at the UW, has also ackowledged the new development and said "the push has been under discussion at the national level for about five years."

Perhaps as a result of that push, UW-Madison currently offers three "clinical doctorates" in pharmacy, audiology and physical therapy. A new "Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)" degree program is reportedly also on its way.

Some observers claim that the "credential creep" started not with the nursing school but the chemistry department when students were awarded Ph.D. degrees after only 3 years of study. The doctorate is traditionally a 4-year program. But both the new trend and the rising stakes are too clear to miss.

Some university officials are concerned that such re-definition of a master's program will lower the university's academic standards and tarnish its reputation. They think the development is troublesome especially when there is a 4-year post-Master's research Ph.D. track still available to all nurses who want to go in that direction.

Many like Clark Hulse, Dean of the Graduate College at the University of Illinois at Chicago, suggest the cooperation of the professional associations, the regional accreditation organizations, and the colleges is the way to bring this contentious issue under control. "The key is to get a good conversation going," Hulse is reported saying.

There is another concern raised by some critics: a doctorate program demands top notch academic personnel and its own share of considerable resources. Thus, these new nursing degree programs might divert precious resources from bachelor and master's degree programs. And that, in turn, might put the brakes on educating undergraduate nurses at the nation's colleges at a time when the need for new nurses is at an all time high.

However, since college accreditation organizations are also supporting the new "professional doctorate" programs, the same university officials are afraid of losing students to competing educational institutions with expanding "professional doctorate" programs.

As the emergent realities of the marketplace force the healthcare professionals to acquire more robust analytical skills and get more familiar with higher levels of academic research, the chances are we'll see a lot more "professional doctorates" awarded to our hard-working nurses in the years ahead.

Ugur Akinci Ph.D. Is the Editor of Nurse Recruiter Newsletter.

Nurse-Recruiter is the award winning nursing job board, employment & career site, founded in 1999 by a nurse to help other nurses find the jobs that perfectly match their qualifications and needs. NR offers many different nurse employment options at the national, state, and regional levels. NR web site www.nurse-recruiter.com is in the top 10% of the most frequently visited websites in the world. NR receives millions of hits per month and ranks #1 for nursing job boards.

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