Industry & ResearchVET & TAFE
Do nurse practitioners need a doctorate?
It is timely to ask whether the qualifications for nurses working in advanced positions need reviewing. In Australia there are about 18 universities offering courses leading to nurse practitioner qualifications as standalone courses or in partnerships.
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Interesting article Andrew….thought provoking. Thanks for starting this conversation. The other term bandied about, is of course, specialist nurse. I will have to think more about your ideas. But as a Credentialed Mental Health Nurse (with a Masters degree prerequisite), I think there is a further discussion to be had about speciality areas of nursing. And then, if we anticipate that those advanced practice nurses need a Doctotorate, then they will still need a PhD in many Universities to teach the taught doctorates….. And by the time these nurses achieve so many qualifications and practice hours……they will be ready for retirement! And then there is the cup of life…..everything else in life might be reduced to the cup half empty rather than half full. I think we need to take care to plan career pathways for the nursing profession with good logic and make it clear. There are too many splinters and lack of consistency at the moment. But…. Thanks for starting the thinking and the conversation!
Not sure about the cup metaphor.; even the AQF is not quite a concrete as that. But as medical practitioners don’t need a PhD or even a masters, why would nurse practitioners need more?
Quite thought provoking, but I can’t see a lot of value in having a PhD or Professional Doctorate as the entry level qualification for NP’s. I agree with Mary-Helen and I actually think this would be a barrier to many, particularly in rural and remote areas where the support to gain this qualifications may be limited. All the same it is a debate worth having.