Ph.D or doctorate

llg, PhD, RN · Jan 24, 2011

A PhD is a doctoral degree. Do you mean PhD vs. DNP?

If you are choosing between a PhD and a DNP, start by identifying what type of work you want to do, what career path you want to follow, etc. The 2 different doctoral degrees are designed to prepared people for different career paths. What are your long term career goals?

Your question is like asking, "Which are healthier, fruits or vegetables?" Which degree is best for you depends on what you want you want to do with it.

tootsie2184 · Jan 26, 2011

Im in the same boat as you. I think with PhD it is very useful if youd like to teach nursing at a university. As far as DNP, it is probably more common in a research/hospital setting.

BCRNA · Jan 27, 2011

Phd is for researchers, DNP is for clinical experts who want to teach or just practice. Ideally, the DNP takes the research from a PhD, and actually puts it into practice. PhD allows one to do research, teach, administrative postions, etc. DNP allows one to focus on direct patient care in their specialty, teach, and administrative positons. Neither track actually directly prepares one to teach though.

Some universities have declared a PhD is required for tenure, not many though. I think the schools that did this was just a grab from the PhD nurses to try and protect their jobs from the massive influx of DNP's that where about to be created, IMO. Which one is right for you just depends on your career goals. If you want just to do research, then do a PhD.

A DNP does not do research, only interprets it. That is the major difference. No major statistics classes or research methodology required. There are a few exceptions, research in things thats are strictly clinical does happen. Just like MD's doing research in clinical settings. All MD's serious about research get PhD's.

elkpark · Jan 27, 2011

Some universities have declared a PhD is required for tenure, not many though. I think the schools that did this was just a grab from the PhD nurses to try and protect their jobs from the massive influx of DNP's that where about to be created, IMO.

No, it's because those schools only accept PhDs for tenure in all departments/colleges, across the board, and they're not treating the nursing faculty any differently than the rest of the university faculty. It's not nurses who make those decisions, it's the senior administration of the entire university.

The last school in which I taught (in the pre-licensure BSN program), a decent-but-unremarkable state university, had already officially declared in 2007 that they will not accept DNP-prepared individuals for tenure-track positions. They can still be hired as faculty, but they'll have the same "academic second-class citizen" status as the MSN-prepared faculty (and all other non-PhD faculty across the university community). I think a lot of schools are going to go this route, and, frankly, I'm happy that they're not lowering their standards or making special concessions for nursing programs.