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Doctorial dissertations on nurse practitioners: 1970-2000
Roderick S Hooker1, Helen G Mayo
1University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Division of Health Services Research, Dallas, TX, USA. Roderick.hooker@utsouthwestern.edu
Purpose:
To understand more about the nurse practitioner (NP) profession, a study was undertaken of the dissertation literature.
Data Sources:
A search of Dissertation Abstracts Online yielded 134 dissertations that included NPs in the title or abstract and were awarded between 1970 and 2000.
Conclusions:
Most of the degrees are either PhD (61%) or EdD (27%). State-based universities produced the most degrees (70%) and six universities accounted for one-fourth of the degrees. The topics of NP-focused dissertations are wide ranging and include history, medical economics and managed care, NP education and professional role, and clinical and behavioral research.
Implications For Practice:
This dataset provides an important source of information for research on the NP profession.