The professional doctorate for nurses in Australia: findings of a scoping exercise

This paper presents the findings of a scoping exercise to map the professional doctorate for nurses and midwives in three Australian Universities using a modified form of Illuminative Evaluation. The visit was prompted by the increase in the number and range of professional doctorates introduced in the UK over the last decade which stimulated a desire to obtain details of similar programmes in Australia. Sources of data included course documentation and course work, session content, and interviews with doctoral students enrolled on a professional doctorate. Examination of the Australian professional doctorate indicates that such programmes were developed primarily in response to the perceived limitations of the PhD and a desire to generate practice-relevant research. Programmes were designed specifically for leaders in the 'clinical' field, such as nurse consultants and those aspiring to Clinical Chairs in Nursing. One of the principal aims of the Australian doctorate was to help clinicians acquire skills in multiple methodologies to promote a patient focused research agenda. This approach has clear lessons for the UK and these are presented in the form of recommendations at the close of the paper. This paper will be of interest to those responsible for the provision of the professional doctorate for nurses, sponsors of students, researchers of education and policy makers.