Online Ph.D Program Addresses Nursing Shortage

Online Ph.D Program Addresses Nursing Shortage

With an eye on alleviating the state's nursing shortage, Georgia State's Byrdine F. Lewis School of Nursing is expanding the way it educates future nurses and nurse educators.

The school began teaching its doctoral nursing courses online, online PhD program, this fall, delivering more than half of the instruction via the Internet. Over the course of each semester, students will come to campus four times to participate in face-to-face class meetings.

"This is a different teaching method to deliver an online Ph.D. program that's been in place at Georgia State for years," says Cecelia Grindel, professor and associate director of graduate programs for the nursing school. "We found that there are many nursing faculty and nurses in Georgia, and in other Southern states, who couldn’t take a day off from work on a regular basis to come to classes, and that they really needed that Ph.D. to move their careers forward."

As soon as the online PhD program received funding, which was allocated by the Board of Regents in the spring, old-fashioned word of mouth spurred early applications from cities and towns across the state, Grindel says. The program accepted 10 students for the fall semester.

Online PhD Program Courses will be taught using distance-learning technologies, including collaborative software and video conferencing, on the campuses of four partnering institutions: Armstrong Atlantic State University, Georgia College & State University, Georgia Southwestern State University, and Valdosta State University.

On a national level, the nursing shortage is being exacerbated by a scarcity of qualified nursing faculty, an issue that was addressed by Georgia State President Carl Patton last February when he spoke to the Georgia House of Representatives' Higher Education Committee.

"If there were more nursing professors, [Georgia State] could graduate three or four times the number of well-prepared nurses we are currently graduating," Patton told legislators. "So, by preparing nurses at all levels, we're making significant strides to address the nursing shortage throughout Georgia."