The University of Oklahoma College of Nursing offers the PhD in Nursing Program at the OU Health Sciences Center Oklahoma City. Students in the program are enrolled in and obtain their degree from the Graduate College of the University of Oklahoma.
The PhD Program in Nursing is designed to prepare nurse scholars to advance the science, art, and practice of the discipline. Doctoral preparation in Nursing promotes knowledge development, organization, and application of theory and evidence-based scholarly nursing practice.
Our collaborative PhD program prepares nurses to develop and utilize knowledge in many roles, including:
PhD students’ research will fall alongside one or more faculty member’s expertise, some place within the continuum of vulnerabilities across diverse populations. See Faculty Research. Courses are competency-based. The intent is for the PhD program to be distance accessible. Presently, the curriculum of the PhD program has courses available in traditional classroom, online, and IP video.
Plan of Study
The research coursework builds on describing the existing science surrounding a problem, identifying a testable research question, testing instruments or analyses, and fleshing out a coherent proposal. One of the final courses is the prospectus seminar, whereby the actual dissertation is developed.
A PhD student should expect to spend a minimum of four full academic years beyond the bachelor’s degree, or three full academic years beyond the master’s degree in doctoral study. PhD students will complete required course work, successfully complete the general examination, and successfully defend the results of their original dissertation research during this period.
Combining both formal coursework and hours of dissertation research, the minimum required number of semester hours for the doctoral degree is 90 post-baccalaureate hours. Up to six hours of NURS 5980 Research can be included in the 90 hours. A minimum of 12 credits is required for NURS 6980 dissertation research. Credits accumulated to satisfy any research tool requirements will not be accepted in fulfillment of the 90-hour minimum credit requirement.
It is anticipated that a typical student (entering with a Master’s degree in Nursing) will take three to five years to complete the program—three years if full-time and five years if part-time. The BSN to PhD track encourages those nurses who wish to teach or conduct research to go directly into a PhD program and emerge at an early age and stage in their careers.
Contact Us
For more information about the PhD in Nursing Degree, please contact:
Office of Student/Alumni Affairs
The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
College of Nursing
P.O. Box 26901
Copyright ©2008 The Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, All Rights Reserved.