Doctoral degrees-Could it be more confusing?

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I copied this from another thread:

Yet despite the benefits, nursing suffers from a severe shortage of doctorally prepared nurses. Eighty-eight universities offer doctoral degrees. Most of them--74--grant doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees. The rest offer a doctor of nursing education (Ed.D.), designed for educators; a doctor of nursing science (DNSc or DNS), with similar curriculum to a Ph.D.; or a doctor of nursing practice (DNP), with a focus on the application of research.

Does any other profession offer so many options to get a doctoral degree? I guess it could be seen as more opportunities, but to me it is just plain CONFUSING! Does anyone else feel this way?

I guess for the nursing profession it is typical, afterall, there are 3 routes of education to get your basic RN degree!

llg, PhD, RN

13,469 Posts

Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.
I copied this from another thread:

Does any other profession offer so many options to get a doctoral degree? I guess it could be seen as more opportunities, but to me it is just plain CONFUSING! Does anyone else feel this way?

I guess for the nursing profession it is typical, afterall, there are 3 routes of education to get your basic RN degree!

I agree completely and have said so many times. Nursing hurts itself when it keeps making up new degrees and new titles. Even nurses themselves don't know what all the letters and titles mean. With that situation, how can we expect other professionals (and the public) to make any sense of it.

My personal opinion is that it happens because the faculty leaders creating these new degrees and titles are doing so to serve their own personal and/or political purposes. For example, they may not want to meet the standards of the university for creating a PhD program that requires the support of the whole faculty -- so they make a substitute degree which only the school of nursing has to approve. I KNOW for a fact that happened in at least one case because the head of the program explained it to me that way herself. Had they tried to establish an actual PhD program, they would have had to get approval from more committees. So, they chose another "doctoral title" (either DNS or DSN, I forget which) that looked exactly like a PhD program because they didn't want to go to the trouble of getting the necessary PhD approval.

As another example ... it seems to me to be a whole lot easier to get grant money for a "new and innovative program" than it is to get money for a traditional, standard one. So, rather than create a new PhD program that people of all disciplines would recognize and respect, they use different letters or market it as focusing on something unique in order to attract money.

As another example ... Picture a bunch of high-level administrators and faculty from different schools getting together to discuss the future of nursing education. As is often the case, each has her own opinion of what a program should look like, what it should be called, etc. Few people are willing to compromise and a concensus is not reached -- so each goes home to her own school and does her own thing.

In sum, they are more interested in pushing their own ideas forward and than they are in doing what's best for nursing -- which I believe is coming to some agreement on standard degrees and titles so that the world can understand and come to appreciate what each has to offer.

Thanks for raising the issue again. It's one of my biggest pet peeves about nursing. After a little ranting on a Friday afternoon, I feel a little better. :-)

llg -- who is glad I have my PhD because everybody (in every discipline) knows what it means -- and who doesn't worry about "clinical expertise" because I have a clinical MSN and have worked in hospitals for 20 of my 27 year career!

mwbeah

430 Posts

many people claim to have a phd, but with further questioning one will find out that in fact the person holds a different type of degree (not a true phd). so always ask a person what they studied so you know exactly who and what you are dealing with.

darch doctor of architecture dmsc doctor of medical science

das doctor of applied science dnsc doctor of nursing science

dba doctor of business administration dpa doctor of public administration

dchem doctor of chemistry dpe doctor of physical education

dcj doctor of criminal justice dph doctor of public health

dcl doctor of comparative law/civil law dps doctor of professional studies

dcrim doctor of criminology drdes doctor of design

ded doctor of environmental design drec/dr doctor of recreation

deng doctor of engineering dsc/scd doctor of science

denv doctor of environment dscd doctor of science in dentistry

desc/scde doctor of engineering science dsch of science and hygiene

df doctor of forestry dscvm doctor of science in veterinary medicine

dfa doctor of fine arts dsm doctor of sacred music

dgs doctor of geological science dssc doctor of social science

dhl doctor of hebrew literature/letters dsw doctor of social work

dhs doctor of health and safety edd doctor of education

dhs doctor of hebrew studies jcd doctor of canon law

dit doctor of industrial technology jsd doctor of juristic science

dls doctor of library science lscd doctor of science of law

dm doctor of music

phd doctor of philosophy(in neuroscience, biology, etc. this is the research based 4-7 year program)

dma doctor of musical arts rhd doctor of rehabilitation

dme doctor of musical education sjd doctor of juridical science

dml doctor of modern languages thd doctor of theology

ooooooof! look at all the doctorates, i hope people are clearly defining what type of dr. they are.

in fact the aacn does not accredit any nd, dns, dsnc programs and want submission of a single set of standard quality indicators for the awarding of such degrees because of the discrepancy of programs. if you goto some school websites they offer the "doctorate" online....... that seems to me to be just not right.

mike

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