Characteristics of nursing doctoral programs in the United States

The expansive growth of doctoral programs in the United States has necessitated a need to determine demographic attributes of the academic program, characteristics of the students, admission criteria, and curriculum patterns. Seventy-eight doctoral programs were sent a researcher-designed survey and 48 (62 per cent) responded. Results show an increasing shift away from clinical doctorates to the research doctorate, although few differences exist within the research focus of doctoral nursing programs. Consistent with previous reports in the literature, curricula are fairly standard and few differences were noted based on a number of criteria including geographic location, type of degree granted, Carnegie classification of the university, or by the length of time the program has been in existence. Discussion of these findings is included.