Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing Science

Program Overview

Ph.D. applicants may be considered for financial support up to $50,000, based on admission scores and other eligibility criteria.

Our online Ph.D. in Nursing Science program prepares graduates to pursue a career of scientific inquiry, scholarship, and professional leadership. We recruit talented and diverse applicants who possess a research interest that matches our faculty’s research expertise, and a commitment to accomplishing the program milestones.

Motivated individuals without a nursing background, who have health-related work experience, may also benefit from this terminal degree and should seek advice from the program director about eligibility.

Why MUSC's Ph.D. Program

• Engage in collaborative learning with our faculty, who lead research on a variety of health issues and with diverse patient populations and communities in one or more of the following areas:
  
  • Symptom science/self-management
  • Health services research
  • Behavioral Health
  • Palliative Care
  • Technology enhanced interventions
  • Community/patient engagement
• Utilize philosophical, theoretical, and conceptual foundations to guide the generation of new knowledge in health care
• Develop expertise within an area of inquiry, identifying critical gaps in knowledge and reflecting a nursing and transdisciplinary perspective.
• Conduct theory-guided research to test, generate, and extend knowledge that informs health care systems, health policy, and the evidence base for practice.

Curriculum

Ph.D. in Nursing Science program offers the options of three-year or four-year plans of study. The Ph.D. curriculum is designed to promote our students’ achievement of essential competencies required of a novice researcher. Both programs require 53 semester hours of course work and 14 semester hours of dissertation.

* A minimum of fourteen (14) credit hours of NRPHD 990 are required. Credits above that amount maybe required, at 3 credits per semester, until the dissertation work is completed.

Minimum of 9 credit hours of Research of Content Focused Electives:

• NRPHD 708  Advanced Health Policy & Advocacy. 3 credit hours
• NRPHD 829  Mixed Methods Research. 3 credit hours
• NRPHD 840  Nursing Workforce Research. 3 credit hours
• NRPHD 842  Intervention Development, Dissemination, & Implementation  3 credit hours
• NRPHD 843  Palliative Care Research. 3 credit hours
• NRPHD 844  Community Engagement for Health Equity Research. 3 credit hours
• NRPHD 845  Trends in Technology Science. 3 credit hours

Additional courses may be taken as research or content electives with permission of the course faculty, research mentor, and PhD Assistant Dean.

• NRPHD 800  Mentored Teaching, 3 credit hours
• NRPHD 841  Mentored Special Topics. 1-9 variable credit hours
• Nurse Educator Courses required for NFLP recipients if not already CNE::
  
  • NURSM 615. Methodology of Online Teaching, 3 credit hours
  • NURSM 703. Instructional Process, 3 credit hours
  • NURSM 713. Curriculum Design & Development, 3 credit hours

Learning Intensives

Learning Intensives provide opportunities for collaborative learning and evaluation of expected competencies. The Learning Intensives are synchronized with the program of study to provide additional support for building scholarly scientific knowledge and skills over time, peer engagement, and socialization to the nurse scientist role. The Intensives integrate and expand on coursework through activities such as student presentations, scholarly discussions, interactive workshops, and review of work with faculty.