Emergent forms of doctoral education in nursing

[Extract] This chapter provides an overview of the differentiation between the ‘nontaught’ and ‘taught’ doctorates, and examines why and how different doctoral approaches in nursing have evolved. The major forms of doctoral education examined are: professional doctoral programmes (mainly taught), doctorates by published work, and doctorates by portfolio; doctoral study via distance education is also explored. Within our discussion we draw out benefits and challenges of these diverse doctoral approaches in nursing, all of which are equally robust and aim to contribute to knowledge for practice.

For the purpose of the chapter doctorates may be termed ‘non-traditional doctorates’; however, we acknowledge that it is difficult to define what is traditional and non-traditional1 in a global context. We suggest that because many different doctoral education systems have emerged over time in many countries with distinct postgraduate systems, no single definition is satisfactory, and mutually exclusive criteria to categorize doctorates are difficult to identify. While many countries have examples of ‘traditional’ PhDs by thesis, diverse new approaches to doctoral education are emerging worldwide, some based on the US Doctorate of Nursing Science (DNS) model, with others emerging within specific contexts such as practice and/or higher education policy, and are subsequently mixed in their structure and delivery.

Therefore, we explore new forms of doctoral education as well as concepts that underpin current understandings of the non-taught (thesis-based PhD) and taught doctorates (professional doctorates such as DNS), and illustrate their key tenets.