Academic Programs - PhD

Collaborative PhD Program

The PhD Program for the OU College of Nursing combines efforts with two other well-established institutions with existing PhD programs in nursing. This collaboration benefits all three schools. Each brings a different dimension in experience, cultural resources, and methodological expertise. All three seek to enhance their program’s offerings in nursing that are culturally sensitive and caring. Filling an online course with PhD students from all three campuses offers cross-fertilization of students’ ideas and perspectives, overcomes tuition differences across schools, and exposes students and faculty to stellar scholars from each university.

The University of Colorado (CU) School of Nursing is one of the nation’s leading schools teaching relationship-centered care, humanities, ethics, and complementary-alternative modalities (CAM) of healing in their nursing curriculum. Students choose a PhD from two research foci: 1) Human Experience of Health, Illness, and Healing, or 2) Environmental Context and Outcomes. CU is particularly interested in collaborative relationships with students at OU on Native American health issues and existing projects concerning CAM. CU offers unusual expertise in qualitative research, a modality well-suited to the study of cultural variables. Finally, the CU program has been presented successfully in an online format, with faculty that are experienced in distance doctoral education.