Dean Gladys Courtney
Dean Toni Sullivan
Susan Taylor
Harriet Werley
Beth Geden
Eileen Porter
Larry Ganong
Linda Bullock
Kay Libbus
Nurturing & Growing a PhD Program
A thought is a seed — a source of grander ideas, full of promise that brings forth a new landscape.
Fifteen years ago, a handful of individuals planted the seed to develop a Doctor of Philosophy in nursing. They saw it growing in the fertile research-based ground of the nursing school on the University of Missouri campus.
Today that seedling has gone beyond growing strong. That one plant has become a well-cultivated garden full of blossoming opportunities for all those who wander its many diverse paths. Next year, a virtual expansion is planned that will open the garden to many across the state, nation and world.
This expansion could not come at a better time. As the nation grays, so do those who are educating the next generation of nurses as well as those conducting nursing research.
Creating Fertile Ground
However, preparing the academic soil with the proper ingredients to create a strong and viable program took nearly 20 years. In 1976 the first named dean of the School, Gladys Courtney, set in motion the development of faculty scholarly research by inviting Drs. Harriet Werley, Susan Taylor and Elizabeth Geden to the School.
“Bringing Harriet Werley on as faculty member had a big impact on the trajectory of the School and its research focus,” says Linda Bullock, professor, researcher and PhD committee chair. “She was one of the foremothers of nursing research.”
With her team assembled, Courtney’s primary goal was to plant nursing research next to the firmly established academic-based curriculum. As the research seeds went into the ground, so did the entire reframing of the academic work and discipline around which the School was centered.
“Up to that point,” says Geden, the associate director of research in the '70s, “nursing faculty had heavy teaching and clinical loads. The mere thought you would parse that out to do research was not a part of the culture at that time.”
But then, just as today, the School was poised to lead in the profession.
Before the '70s, there were less than 500 PhD-prepared nurses, and throughout the United States only five nursing doctoral programs. And similarly in the late '80s, tough economic times had struck the country causing administrators to look closely at programs to eliminate duplicity.
That’s when a new cross-breed was created — the cooperative PhD program.
Conditioning the Soil
As the School’s research base broadened with the number of PhD faculty hired, the tiny seedlings of the MS and PhD programs were beginning to peek through the soil. Discussions surrounding the different practice areas of the PhD and nurse practitioner programs were happening at the same time the School was trying to establish its independence from the School of Medicine.
“Gladys lost her job due to her stance on independence. She believed that nursing education should be independent of the medical education,” Taylor says. “She was the School’s first dean who wasn’t under the control of the School of Medicine.”
The '80s saw few PhD programs conceptually based in nursing. “In those early days, that base was our strength. Our curricula were viewed on campus as outstanding programs,” Geden says.
From the program’s inception, the School’s faculty worked hard to stay on the cutting edge of research, education and practice.
“To this day, our doctoral students are well grounded in research skills and methods,” says Kay Libbus, professor and current doctoral program director. “They now have six hours of research practica with hands-on experience in obtaining those skills.”
She believes that as researchers become more involved in their specific areas they become an invaluable resource in the classroom.
“As the nursing profession evolves, we recognize that research is strengthening and changing the best practices we use daily,” she says. “This shows that nursing needs to be taught from a research base. All nursing students need to view nursing as a discipline that grows and changes. They are here to become educated, critical thinkers.”
As experts in their profession, PhD graduates bring a passion to the classroom that is palpable. It is that same passion that created the cooperative PhD program.
New Cross Breed in Education
In the late '80s, programmatic reviews at the campus and system levels addressed concerns about programs duplicity. It was also during this time that the School’s faculty helped the University of Missouri – St. Louis faculty establish their undergraduate nursing program.
“It was in our best interest to help them build a good, solid program,” Taylor says. “So when the other Missouri campuses started thinking about doctoral programs, the only response University Hall could have was to establish a cooperative program.”
At that time, cooperative academic programs were rare at the University and throughout the nation. But it met the needs of the Board of Curators and once again the School was in a leadership role. The first students were admitted in 1993.
“We were so hungry for the doctoral program that it became irrelevant that the three campuses weren’t on equal footing,” Geden says. “It was apparent that if we wanted this program then establishing it cooperatively was the only way we were going to achieve that. Dean Toni Sullivan was able to keep that end goal in mind as she negotiated those initial meetings. She was remarkable in this regard; we wouldn’t have the program we have today without her strength and Gladys’ vision.”
In 2005, the three schools decreased their dependence upon one another in the cooperative program effort.
Back to Basics
Once the doctoral framework was established, three specialty areas were identified: health restoration and support; health promotion and protection; and health care systems.
In those early years, faculty members took a specific number of students and mentored them.
“In the beginning, the program was a little more general,” says Eileen Porter, professor and former PhD program director. “We focused more on these general concept areas and didn’t worry too much about which mentor the student was assigned. Later we thought more about how specific mentors and students matched up and we had the students meet the faculty before they could apply.”
Today, the application process still hinges on that unique student-mentor relationship.
“The mission of the School and the land-grant University is to cultivate practicing nurses and faculty members,” Libbus says. “Our PhD program meets both of those goals. We are exposing undergraduate students to individuals who, due to a research base, have roles beyond the traditional baccalaureate-prepared nurse. This is crucial to our discipline’s future.
“If we can capture the student’s attention so they realize these other roles, then maybe we can attract a younger student base at the graduate level who can in turn educate more nurses,” she continues.
This is the critical point in nursing education — educating research-based nurses at the graduate level who return to the classroom. As it’s been reported, there is a nursing shortage that will continue as the baby-boomer generation ages. The graying of nursing faculty — a niche that the PhD program is trying to fill, contributes to the shortage.
Square-foot Gardening
Back in the program’s formative years, nursing faculty such as Geden and Taylor were diligently working with their colleagues on the MU campus to ensure there was support for doctoral students in course work in other disciplines.
Currently graduate nursing students are required to take six to 12 hours of coursework in other disciplines to support their nursing focus. “Because nursing students don’t have detailed knowledge in these outside areas, we had to do the groundwork to make sure faculty in other areas would accept our students,” Geden says.
Since nurses are exceptionally good at building relationships, the faculty’s hard work paid off. Doctoral students in nursing are now accepted throughout the myriad of disciplines available across the campus.
“Our personal relationships, the work we’ve done with other departments, and the quality of our students are what permits these successful relationships to continue to this day,” Libbus says. “We still continue to do a lot of work to make sure our students have access to the appropriate courses.”
However, Geden points out that acceptance was a hard-earned right. “Initially when we approached other departments they looked at us like we had four heads,” she says. “They didn’t see the connection between their departments and nursing.”
The varied dissertation titles show MU nurses are now playing an essential role in research and education throughout the campus. Another goal the faculty had was to be full members of the University faculty. This was accomplished by having nursing students fully engaged with others throughout the campus. Faculty members today enjoy all the benefits planted by colleagues during the last couple of decades.
As nurses, states Bullock, we are so much a part of the system that many don’t know or appreciate the cultivation that went into creating interdisciplinary goodwill and relationships across this University.
“Faculty today do not have to explain their presence here,” Geden says. “We had to explain why we should even have a presence.”
Today, seeds are being planted in the doctoral program in the fertile soil created by Deans Courtney and Sullivan. Bullock and Libbus and other nursing faculty are now initiating and teaching interdisciplinary courses at the doctoral level, as well as conducting research that engages students from various disciplines.
“Twenty-five years ago, nursing faculty were petitioning for nursing students to be included,” Libbus says. “Today, we are engaging students from all disciplines in research ethics and grant writing. We have engineers, nurses, educators and human developmental studies represented; and the students love the diversity.”
Master Gardeners
In those early days, the faculty found themselves in a leadership role that many on campus had never personally experienced. Taylor and Geden drew up course descriptions, outlines, programs of study, core areas and the “whole nine yards.”
“These items had to be approved by the Graduate School, biological sector and the graduate nursing faculty before we could move forward,” Geden says. “It was a difficult hoop to get through, and it had to be accomplished before the cooperative program could begin.”
One critical change that faculty made to the original PhD curriculum was to institute a required advanced research practicum course that students had to complete before conducting their supervised dissertation research. Porter explains that this innovative mentored research experience has been well-received by students and faculty and has led to many joint publications in top journals.
During this same time period, when Porter and Larry Ganong, professor, were co-directors of the program, the Forms and Formalities handbook was created to document the program’s academic policies for students.
“We also developed a template to keep track of our student’s progress on an individual basis,” Porter says. “Both the tracking template and student handbook were recognized as exemplars of excellence by the dean of the Graduate School and they became models for the other graduate programs on campus.”
However, being master gardeners was not new to the School or its faculty. This School was one of the first on the MU campus to have graduates complete a program of study on-line. The RN-BSN program, which began in 1997, went on-line in 2001. Next year, the School continues the tradition of being in the forefront of educational trends by offering its PhD and Doctor of Nursing Practice program on-line as well.
“Taking the PhD program on-line has a lot to do with our clientele,” Libbus says. “Individuals who come for advanced degrees in nursing are not usually 23 years old. They are usually older, settled into a community and raising a family. They find it much harder to pack up and move to Columbia for five years.”
But as the technology has improved, the University’s Educational Technology Director Danna Vessel says the toolbox has expanded as well. These tools have been incorporated into the on-line classroom experience as a part of a relationship-building process. Blogs, discussion boards, wikis and web cameras are all ways the nursing faculty will build a personal relationship with distance-mediated students, says Vessel.
“In the past nine years, we’ve seen an evolution of placing content on a web page to these different forms of communications and different ways of meeting with students,” Vessell says. “It’s about forming relationships and that’s the important aspect — especially with a PhD program. To experience that intensive, mentor-apprenticeship model of learning is one of the reasons students go to graduate school. And that’s why we’re here — to make that experience happen via the computer environment.”
Vessell believes the nursing faculty will quickly adapt to the new technology because throughout the years they have consistently been campus leaders in this regard. “From the technology standpoint, we were already in the forefront because of the RN-to-BSN program,” she says (see related article).
As the new distance-mediated programs take root, the faculty are forging new ground that keeps students invested in faculty research endeavors, personalized mentoring and gaining hands-on, local research experiences.
“We are also creating a required on-campus research interest summer course that will begin after the launch of the distance-mediated program in 2010,” Libbus states. “This immersion course will provide that intense mentoring between students and faculty members.”
The faculty are also in the process of restructuring the annual research day so that it fits with the distance-mediated model. Students from locations around the world can participate in a synchronistic way, says Libbus.
Harvest
Although the School has a solid research base, the current challenges facing the PhD program center around attracting a student population to the middle of the state. As Porter points out, that has always been the challenge.
But once again the program’s strength lies within the team. The School’s standards come from a historic conception and implementation of standards at a Research One institution. “Our standards are drawn from our colleagues’ standards on campus and being members of that community,” Geden says. “These are deeply embedded standards.”
The screening process of potential students is done at a higher level with those standards in mind. This has led to doctoral nursing students being funded at the national level in various ways and receiving top honors and awards (see this article on Jennifer Dine).
Another strength of the team is seen in the progression of the School’s faculty scholarly productivity going from third to first among all nursing schools in the Association of American Universities ratings. National data as a basis for scholarly productivity indicates the School is among the top in the country.
So instead of incurring a drought, the School is planting new seeds and creating new terrain with the confidence of a natural-born leader.
“We are creating an environment for those who are ready to change their career path, fuel their inner passion and make a difference in the profession of nursing and the next generation of nurses,” Libbus says. “And we are using the most advanced technology to make those personal goals fit into their everyday lives.”