Edinboro University in Pennsylvania will be offering doctorate degrees starting summer 2014, school officials announced.
The institution's first doctoral program, the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), was approved Jan. 23 by the board of Governors of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. The program will be offered in consortium with Clarion University and is designed to be a completion program to the universities' jointly offered Master of Science in Nursing, according to a news release from Edinboro University.
"I am delighted that Edinboro is, for the first time in its 157-year history, authorized to grant a doctoral degree," Edinboro University President Julie Wollman said in a statement. "I am equally delighted that this degree will meet the great need in our region for advanced practice nurses and clinical nurse educators. Our mission is to provide an outstanding education that prepares students to excel and advance in their professions and that meets the needs of our region. Our new doctoral program does both."
University officials said the collaborative doctorate program will be a 34-credit program that offers specialty electives in advanced clinical practice and clinical nursing education. Students will be admitted in cohorts of 27, with classes beginning each summer.
The doctoral program was designed to provide a flexible educational experience; courses can be taken part-time over six semesters in an entirely online format.
"It is exciting that nursing is the first doctoral program to be offered at Edinboro," Dr. Amy McClune, assistant professor of nursing and graduate program director, said in a statement. "The approval of the DNP should provide an avenue for other disciplines to pursue doctoral programs on campus."
McClune added that graduates from DNP will boost the supply of primary health care practitioners in the region.
"The new program is an invaluable asset to the northwestern Pennsylvania region due to a critical shortage of primary care providers in rural areas," university officials said.
