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Nursing PhD Consortia: A Model for Maximizing Scarce Resources
NURSING PHD CONSORTIA: A MODEL FOR MAXIMIZING SCARCE RESOURCES KATHLEEN ANN LONG, RN, PHD, FAAN* Doctoral (PhD) education in nursing is costly and requires scarce resources: qualified faculty, qualified students, research funding, and infrastructure. This article discusses the development and implementation of a five-school consortium for delivery of an established PhD in Nursing Science program throughout north Florida. Factors that contributed to the success of the Consortium, including communication, history of shared work, collaborative approaches, and a formal agreement, are described. Challenges, such as maintaining curricular integrity across settings and selecting web-based formats, are considered. Results to date have been a viable consortium with a 4-year history, three PhD consortium graduates, 22 PhD students enrolled via the consortium, and success in attracting both federal and private funding. Consortia are proposed as a strategy for the effective use of limited resources, and suggestions are provided for the development of successful consortium models capable of delivering high-quality PhD nursing education. (Index words: PhD education; Consortium model; Distance delivery) J Prof Nurs 23:262–6, 2007. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Two Decades of Doctoral Programs: Disappointing Results
T
HE NEED FOR new doctorally prepared nurses has never been greater. Despite a national nursing shortage and a surplus of applicants for baccalaureate nursing education programs, a shortage of qualified faculty members limits the ability of nursing schools to accept more students (Fang, Wilsey-Wisniewski, & Bednash, 2006). In 2005–2006, baccalaureate degree programs nationally reported more than 37,000 qualified applicants unable to be accommodated, and credible projections indicate that both the nursing faculty shortage and the shortage of practicing nurses will worsen (Fang et al., 2006). This situation, coupled with the growing need and demand for well-prepared nurses in a variety of nonacademic settings, has created significant pressure for producing more PhD-prepared nurses or nurses with comparable research-focused doctorates. The result of new PhD programs opening in the 1980s and 1990s is both disappointing and disturbing. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing Position Statement on quality indicators in doctoral programs
*Professor and Dean, University of Florida, College of Nursing, Gainesville, FL. Address correspondence to Dr. Long: Professor and Dean, University of Florida, College of Nursing, PO Box 100197, HSC, Gainesville, FL 32610-0197. E-mail: [email protected] 8755-7223/$ - see front matter 262 doi:10.1016/j.profnurs.2007.04.004
(American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2001, p. 10) summarizes the situation as follows: “Despite the addition of 52 doctoral nursing programs in the 1980s and 1990s, there were just 200 more graduates in 1998 than in 1989, and most of that growth occurred prior to 1992. In 1998 the average number of graduations from the 70 existing doctoral education programs was less than six per program.” Recent national data indicate only 457 graduates from 81 research-focused doctoral programs (Berlin, Stennett, & Bednash, 2003). Thus, the development of additional new doctoral programs has not been an effective or efficient strategy for producing more nurses with doctoral degrees.
The Need to Share Resources A primary reason for this deficiency may be that additional research-focused doctoral programs further divide the scarce resources needed to produce more graduates. These resources include qualified students, qualified faculty members, research funding, and the infrastructure to support scholarly work. The development of new doctoral programs over the past two decades appears to have increased competition for these resources rather than added additional resources. Further, current trends indicate that the resources essential for doctoral programs of reasonable quality may become even less available in the future. The very favorable job market for new baccalaureate graduates in nursing is a strong disincentive for many of them to pursue graduate education. In addition, salaries for
Journal of Professional Nursing, Vol 23, No 5 (September–October), 2007: pp 262–266 A 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
NURSING PHD CONSORTIA: A MODEL FOR MAXIMIZING SCARCE RESOURCES
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nurses in academic settings are generally below those for nurses with comparable education in other sectors, thus discouraging those who do complete a doctoral degree from seeking academic-setting employment. The average age of senior-ranked faculty members, those most typically engaged in providing doctoral education, is now more than 55, and there is not an adequate supply of junior faculty members to replace them (Berlin & Sechrist, 2002). In addition, there is little in current federal or state budget projections to indicate a substantial infusion of resources for either the funding of nursing research or the development of new research infrastructures at colleges and universities. Available federal and state funds have been focused on programs to educate new entry-level nurses, often in community colleges, and this trend is likely to continue. Together, these factors are indicative of a crisis that demands sharing, rather than competing, for the specialized resources needed for PhD-level education in nursing.
Unfortunately, the proliferation of nursing PhD programs has not yielded a significant increase in doctoral degree graduates in Florida. In addition, those in the northern tier of the state, including the less populated Panhandle area, have remained without doctoral education access.
A Successful Consortium Model
Viable, Sustainable Partnerships. Reflecting on the successes and challenges in the North Florida Consortium, it is possible to identify the variables that have resulted in a viable, sustainable partnership. The initial development of the Consortium was based on several years of good working relationships among the involved deans and directors. Interactions and collaborative work related to lobbying, statewide planning, and community college articulation agreements provided a basis for the development of trust and understanding. All deans and directors involved were active in the statewide dean's group, now called the Florida Association of Colleges of Nursing, and were also members of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. These memberships helped to provide a common frame of reference, including an understanding of what is needed for quality doctoral education. Discussions among the deans and directors, as well as faculties from the respective schools, helped clarify needs and goals. The faculty at the UF College of Nursing wanted to expand doctoral enrollment and to enrich the pool of faculty members involved in doctoral-level teaching and mentoring. Administrators and faculty members from the other four schools wanted to make a high-quality nursing PhD program accessible and affordable in their areas of the state. There was also particular interest in a method of program delivery that would permit master'sprepared faculty members to continue in their academic positions while engaging in doctoral studies.
Consortia and other partnerships for nursing education are not new (Lund, Tate, & Hyde-Robertson, 1998; Quinless & Levin, 1998; Yeaworth, 1996). However, consortia for the delivery of PhD programs are less common. Examples of such initiatives include those developed between Oregon Health and Sciences University and Montana State University and the former partnership of the University of South Carolina and the Medical University of South Carolina. The recently established North Florida Consortium for Doctoral Education in Nursing is unique in several ways. It may provide a model for developing, sustaining, and enhancing consortia capable of delivering quality researchfocused doctoral education to multiple sites for extended periods of time.
Nursing Education in Florida: Background Florida is a geographically large state with a fast-growing population. The state has distinct sections with widely varying resources and needs. These include heavily populated areas such as Orlando and Tampa, midsized towns, and isolated rural segments. While the economy of the state is based heavily on tourism, Florida also relies on agriculture and ranching. Several areas of the state have sizeable populations with considerable wealth; however, the per capita income in Florida is only US $33,219 (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2005), and a sizeable portion of the population works in low-paying service jobs or migrant farming (Machen et al., 2005). State universities have been developed in all heavily populated areas, which are home to numerous private colleges and universities as well. Baccalaureate and/or graduate-level nursing education programs are a part of all 10 state universities and are also found in 13 private schools. Research-focused doctoral (PhD) programs currently exist in five state universities and two private universities, with four of the state university doctoral programs having been developed in the past 10 years.
Partnering to Address the Need: Early Phase In an effort to address the need for doctoral education in north Florida, nursing education deans and directors from Florida A&M University, Florida State University, the University of North Florida, the University of West Florida, and the University of Florida (UF) partnered to form the North Florida Consortium for Doctoral Education in Nursing in 2002. The intent was to share resources to expand delivery of a doctoral program that included the quality indicators outlined in the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Position Statement on doctoral programs (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2001). The first students were admitted in 2003.
Incorporation of Degree, Curriculum, and Faculty. The UF College of Nursing faculty weighed the pros and cons of a consortium model and endorsed offering the College's established PhD in Nursing Science as a Cooperative Degree with four other consortium partners. A cooperative degree plan was developed. It allowed for minor area and elective courses to be offered by each of the participating schools, while nursing coursework was delivered by UF. Dissertation work was also to be directed by UF faculty members, with plans for faculty members
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from the four partner schools to serve on dissertation committees. The proposal was formally reviewed and approved at several levels within the UF, including the Graduate School. The curriculum framework of the UF's PhD program, as well as admission and graduation standards, remained unchanged. However, there was approval for additional transfer credits that could be earned in the minor area and for electives. Processes were established for review of the credentials of faculty members at the four Consortium schools partnering with the UF. Qualified faculty members from these four institutions were formally appointed as UF courtesy faculty, and those with appropriate credentials received UF graduate faculty appointments. These faculty members were oriented and prepared to function as advisors and mentors, and plans were developed for them to assist in course teaching and serve on dissertation committees. An important next step was formalization of the working relationship among all five schools. This process served to clarify expectations and to institutionalize the Consortium so that it could continue beyond the tenure of the deans/directors originally involved in its development. A formal cooperative degree agreement was signed by the nursing dean/director and the provost/academic vice president of each of the five participating state universities in 2002. This agreement specified the roles and responsibilities of each university and clarified the process for offering UF's PhD in Nursing Science through the North Florida Consortium.
Implementation and Challenges Web-based and On-site Delivery. Despite a clear plan and a formal agreement, actual implementation of the consortium model was challenging. First, all of the UF's required doctoral-level nursing courses were reviewed and determinations were made regarding the most appropriate way to offer each: live interactive video delivery, an interactive web format, or some combination thereof. Based partially on the positive experience of College of Pharmacy faculty members delivering the UF's “Working PharmD Program,” the nursing faculty selected Digiscript as the platform for web-based delivery of selected courses. Digiscript allowed for a sophisticated combination of video streaming, written text, and PowerPoint outlines. Although it was relatively easy for faculty members to develop the “first draft” of each class, editing and refining the final product were more time consuming than first anticipated. Keeping the web-based courses updated was also an ongoing process, requiring substantial faculty time. Careful selection of courses most appropriate for this type of delivery has been part of the learning process for faculty members teaching in the program. Based on course content and objectives, plans were made for a small number of in-person classes to be held each semester on either the UF campus or the campus of another participating consortium school. An important
goal of these in-person classes was to foster the socialization of doctoral students into new roles as researchers and scholars. With this in mind, on-site advisors were also identified at each partner school and specific plans were developed for regular meetings of faculty members and students located at each site. Students and faculty members arranged in advance of each semester to travel, usually one to three times a semester, for in-person meetings. Coursework has been successfully offered in the Consortium since 2003. Following the completion of coursework and successful completion of qualifying examinations, each student arranges an on-site and distance study schedule with the dissertation chair. A plan is developed to maximize each student's ability to grow in the role of researcher/scholar while recognizing constraints related to time, finances, and other obligations. Each PhD student has both on-site and distance access to the rich resources of the UF's Health Science Center Library. The UF College of Nursing has its own expert librarian who provides assistance to PhD students for searches and reference acquisitions. In addition, Consortium students at distant sites are able to utilize services from the College's Office for Research Support, including statistical consultation, mentoring in preparation of predoctoral grant applications, editorial services, and technical help in the preparation of posters and other presentation materials. Funding. The North Florida Consortium was helped significantly by a grant from the Division of Nursing (Health Resources and Services Administration, #00021229). This grant provided much of the funding for development of the Digiscript web-based courses and covered some costs for live distance delivery. Now that all participating schools have Internet2 access, the costs for interactive distance delivery have been reduced significantly. The grant also provided funds to support student and faculty travel, selected supplies for students, and salary support for the designated liaison faculty member at each participating partner school.
Results To date, 22 students have enrolled in the UF's PhD in Nursing Science Program through three of the four participating partner schools. The University of West Florida has just begun participation because of delays related to changes in the University's administration and the devastation of the Pensacola area by recent hurricanes. Three students from Consortium partner schools have earned a PhD in Nursing Science from the UF as of Spring 2006, and six faculty members at partner institutions hold courtesy faculty or graduate faculty status at the UF. The involvement of faculty members from all four partner schools in the UF PhD program has helped raise and address important questions about doctoral courses and the curriculum overall. It has also enhanced the diverse mix of faculty and student expertise while expanding the pool of qualified students and
NURSING PHD CONSORTIA: A MODEL FOR MAXIMIZING SCARCE RESOURCES
provided qualified faculty members for service on selected dissertation committees. The small number of new PhD graduates, to date, may not seem like a significant accomplishment, yet each adds substantially to the expertise available in her or his institution and geographic area. A research-focused doctoral education program is now accessible to nurses in Jacksonville, Tallahassee, and Pensacola, and the program is offered to Florida residents at in-state tuition rates, thus making it considerably more affordable than out-of-state or private school distance delivery options. Additionally, students in the Consortium PhD Program have more opportunities to know and work with faculty members and their fellow students and to become socialized as doctorally prepared nurses than is the case in many other types of distance delivered programs.
Lessons Learned There are distinct advantages to a consortium partnership for the delivery of PhD nursing education. Maximizing scarce resources—qualified students, qualified faculty, research funding, and infrastructure—are significant advantages for all involved. In addition to using existing resources strategically, a consortium can provide opportunities to garner new resources. With the North Florida Consortium, it was possible to secure a substantial federal grant to help with start-up costs and successfully launch the initiative. A second grant is being sought to further expand and improve the Consortium, including the addition of a Doctor of Nursing Practice option. Also, private funds have been successfully sought to support selected areas of the Consortium program, most particularly scholarships and faculty support. Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Florida recently provided a substantial gift, which, with a State of Florida match, will result in an endowment to sustain the Consortium. Both federal funders and those in private organizations indicated that the Consortium was an attractive program to support because the partnership was cost-effective and used scarce resources effectively while maintaining quality standards for doctoral education. The Consortium has also been recognized by Florida legislators and education policy leaders as preferable to the proliferation of new and expensive PhD programs in the state. Communication, frequent and candid, has been and continues to be a key factor in the Consortium's success. The liaison faculty members at each institution fill a critical role in helping students identify potential problems and resolve existing ones. In the past, for example, a particular challenge had to do with clarifying minor area courses that would be acceptable for interuniversity transfer credit while insuring these courses were appropriate for a given student's scholarly and research goals. After several discussions, an information sheet with specific course information for each institution was developed for use by students and liaison faculty members, and this helped clarify appropriate options and curtail potential problems. Arranging for live interactive distance delivery of
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courses presented its own set of problems as well, including the articulation of equipment across five schools, the scheduling of classrooms, and backup planning for the rare but troubling times when distance delivery simply did not work at a particular site. Developing good working relations among the distance education technicians and experts across all sites took time and effort, but the result was crucial for success. Real outreach in program delivery requires flexibility and creativity from all participants. A delicate balance is required for maintaining the quality and integrity of a doctoral program while adapting to the needs of adult distant-site learners with time constraints. UF faculty members have been engaged in ongoing efforts to maintain this balance and to insure that a PhD in Nursing Science earned through the Consortium is comparable to one earned through the traditional UF on-campus mode. Disagreement, debate, and open discussion within the UF's nursing faculty have been necessary elements for assessing and maintaining educational quality. Additionally, frequent dialogue with faculty members and PhD students from partner schools has facilitated the adoption of appropriate compromises, if not the discovery of outright solutions, for issues involving academic rigor within a context of multiple-site variations. A cornerstone for the success of the North Florida Consortium has been respect for the independence and academic integrity of each partner school. With this in mind, it has been recognized that each partner school will participate only so long as there is reciprocal benefit for its faculty and students and for the Consortium overall. The UF Graduate School rules and requirements are applied to insure integrity of the PhD education program, but these are discussed in advance with students and faculty members at partner schools. When flexibility is possible without compromising quality, efforts are made to accommodate special needs. There is recognition that the faculty at any Consortium school may eventually wish to develop its own doctoral program, should adequate resources to launch such a program be garnered. The North Florida Doctoral Consortium has accomplished two major goals: a planned and selective expansion of PhD enrollment at the UF and the delivery of high-quality, affordable doctoral education to areas of the state that had been without it. In addition, the UF faculty members teaching in the doctoral program have been challenged and enriched by exchanges with faculty members from the other Consortium schools. Perhaps the greatest lessons learned through the North Florida Consortium for Doctoral Education in Nursing are that collaboration between institutions can actually work and that modeling successful collaborative problem solving can offer students powerful learning experiences for framing their own future academic careers. Students, teachers, and administrators alike have seen that despite considerable challenges, only the joint efforts of all involved have yielded the North Florida Consortium
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outcomes; these would not have been possible through the efforts of any single institution.
Acknowledgments The deans/directors of the following nursing education programs are acknowledged for their insight and collaborative spirit: Florida A&M University, Florida State University, the University of North Florida, and the University of West Florida. These colleagues have been invaluable in the development and success of the North Florida Consortium for Doctoral Education.
References American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2001). Indicators of quality in research-focused doctoral programs in nursing. Washington, DC: Author (AACN Position Paper). Berlin, L. E. & Sechrist, K. R. (2002). The shortage of doctorally prepared nursing faculty: A dire situation. Nursing Outlook, 50, 50–56.
Berlin, L. E., Stennett, J., & Bednash, G. D. (2003). 2002–2003 enrollment and graduations in baccalaureate and graduate programs in nursing. Washington, DC: American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Fang, D., Wilsey-Wisniewski, S. J., & Bednash, G. D. (2006). 2005–2006 enrollment and graduations in baccalaureate and graduate programs in nursing. Washington, DC: American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Lund, C. H., Tate, E. T., & Hyde-Robertson, B. (1998). Benefits and challenges of a graduate nursing consortium. Nurse Educator, 26, 13–16. Machen, J. B., Kraft, J., Smith, S. K., Collins, C. B., Floyd, S. S., Wilson, P. A., et al. (2005). Bureau of economic and business research. Gainesville: Warrington College of Business, University of Florida. Quinless, F. W. & Levin, R. F. (1998). Northern New Jersey nursing education consortium: A partnership for graduate nursing education. Journal of Professional Nursing, 14, 220–224. U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. (2006). State personal income 2005. Retrieved July 18, 2006, from http://www.bea.gov/bea/newsrel/ spinewsrelease.htm. Yeaworth, R. C. (1996). Consortia arrangements and educational telecommunication. Journal of Professional Nursing, 12, 147–153.
Two Decades of Doctoral Programs: Disappointing Results
T
HE NEED FOR new doctorally prepared nurses has never been greater. Despite a national nursing shortage and a surplus of applicants for baccalaureate nursing education programs, a shortage of qualified faculty members limits the ability of nursing schools to accept more students (Fang, Wilsey-Wisniewski, & Bednash, 2006). In 2005–2006, baccalaureate degree programs nationally reported more than 37,000 qualified applicants unable to be accommodated, and credible projections indicate that both the nursing faculty shortage and the shortage of practicing nurses will worsen (Fang et al., 2006). This situation, coupled with the growing need and demand for well-prepared nurses in a variety of nonacademic settings, has created significant pressure for producing more PhD-prepared nurses or nurses with comparable research-focused doctorates. The result of new PhD programs opening in the 1980s and 1990s is both disappointing and disturbing. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing Position Statement on quality indicators in doctoral programs
*Professor and Dean, University of Florida, College of Nursing, Gainesville, FL. Address correspondence to Dr. Long: Professor and Dean, University of Florida, College of Nursing, PO Box 100197, HSC, Gainesville, FL 32610-0197. E-mail: [email protected] 8755-7223/$ - see front matter 262 doi:10.1016/j.profnurs.2007.04.004
(American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2001, p. 10) summarizes the situation as follows: “Despite the addition of 52 doctoral nursing programs in the 1980s and 1990s, there were just 200 more graduates in 1998 than in 1989, and most of that growth occurred prior to 1992. In 1998 the average number of graduations from the 70 existing doctoral education programs was less than six per program.” Recent national data indicate only 457 graduates from 81 research-focused doctoral programs (Berlin, Stennett, & Bednash, 2003). Thus, the development of additional new doctoral programs has not been an effective or efficient strategy for producing more nurses with doctoral degrees.
The Need to Share Resources A primary reason for this deficiency may be that additional research-focused doctoral programs further divide the scarce resources needed to produce more graduates. These resources include qualified students, qualified faculty members, research funding, and the infrastructure to support scholarly work. The development of new doctoral programs over the past two decades appears to have increased competition for these resources rather than added additional resources. Further, current trends indicate that the resources essential for doctoral programs of reasonable quality may become even less available in the future. The very favorable job market for new baccalaureate graduates in nursing is a strong disincentive for many of them to pursue graduate education. In addition, salaries for
Journal of Professional Nursing, Vol 23, No 5 (September–October), 2007: pp 262–266 A 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
NURSING PHD CONSORTIA: A MODEL FOR MAXIMIZING SCARCE RESOURCES
263
nurses in academic settings are generally below those for nurses with comparable education in other sectors, thus discouraging those who do complete a doctoral degree from seeking academic-setting employment. The average age of senior-ranked faculty members, those most typically engaged in providing doctoral education, is now more than 55, and there is not an adequate supply of junior faculty members to replace them (Berlin & Sechrist, 2002). In addition, there is little in current federal or state budget projections to indicate a substantial infusion of resources for either the funding of nursing research or the development of new research infrastructures at colleges and universities. Available federal and state funds have been focused on programs to educate new entry-level nurses, often in community colleges, and this trend is likely to continue. Together, these factors are indicative of a crisis that demands sharing, rather than competing, for the specialized resources needed for PhD-level education in nursing.
Unfortunately, the proliferation of nursing PhD programs has not yielded a significant increase in doctoral degree graduates in Florida. In addition, those in the northern tier of the state, including the less populated Panhandle area, have remained without doctoral education access.
A Successful Consortium Model
Viable, Sustainable Partnerships. Reflecting on the successes and challenges in the North Florida Consortium, it is possible to identify the variables that have resulted in a viable, sustainable partnership. The initial development of the Consortium was based on several years of good working relationships among the involved deans and directors. Interactions and collaborative work related to lobbying, statewide planning, and community college articulation agreements provided a basis for the development of trust and understanding. All deans and directors involved were active in the statewide dean's group, now called the Florida Association of Colleges of Nursing, and were also members of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. These memberships helped to provide a common frame of reference, including an understanding of what is needed for quality doctoral education. Discussions among the deans and directors, as well as faculties from the respective schools, helped clarify needs and goals. The faculty at the UF College of Nursing wanted to expand doctoral enrollment and to enrich the pool of faculty members involved in doctoral-level teaching and mentoring. Administrators and faculty members from the other four schools wanted to make a high-quality nursing PhD program accessible and affordable in their areas of the state. There was also particular interest in a method of program delivery that would permit master'sprepared faculty members to continue in their academic positions while engaging in doctoral studies.
Consortia and other partnerships for nursing education are not new (Lund, Tate, & Hyde-Robertson, 1998; Quinless & Levin, 1998; Yeaworth, 1996). However, consortia for the delivery of PhD programs are less common. Examples of such initiatives include those developed between Oregon Health and Sciences University and Montana State University and the former partnership of the University of South Carolina and the Medical University of South Carolina. The recently established North Florida Consortium for Doctoral Education in Nursing is unique in several ways. It may provide a model for developing, sustaining, and enhancing consortia capable of delivering quality researchfocused doctoral education to multiple sites for extended periods of time.
Nursing Education in Florida: Background Florida is a geographically large state with a fast-growing population. The state has distinct sections with widely varying resources and needs. These include heavily populated areas such as Orlando and Tampa, midsized towns, and isolated rural segments. While the economy of the state is based heavily on tourism, Florida also relies on agriculture and ranching. Several areas of the state have sizeable populations with considerable wealth; however, the per capita income in Florida is only US $33,219 (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2005), and a sizeable portion of the population works in low-paying service jobs or migrant farming (Machen et al., 2005). State universities have been developed in all heavily populated areas, which are home to numerous private colleges and universities as well. Baccalaureate and/or graduate-level nursing education programs are a part of all 10 state universities and are also found in 13 private schools. Research-focused doctoral (PhD) programs currently exist in five state universities and two private universities, with four of the state university doctoral programs having been developed in the past 10 years.
Partnering to Address the Need: Early Phase In an effort to address the need for doctoral education in north Florida, nursing education deans and directors from Florida A&M University, Florida State University, the University of North Florida, the University of West Florida, and the University of Florida (UF) partnered to form the North Florida Consortium for Doctoral Education in Nursing in 2002. The intent was to share resources to expand delivery of a doctoral program that included the quality indicators outlined in the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Position Statement on doctoral programs (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2001). The first students were admitted in 2003.
Incorporation of Degree, Curriculum, and Faculty. The UF College of Nursing faculty weighed the pros and cons of a consortium model and endorsed offering the College's established PhD in Nursing Science as a Cooperative Degree with four other consortium partners. A cooperative degree plan was developed. It allowed for minor area and elective courses to be offered by each of the participating schools, while nursing coursework was delivered by UF. Dissertation work was also to be directed by UF faculty members, with plans for faculty members
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from the four partner schools to serve on dissertation committees. The proposal was formally reviewed and approved at several levels within the UF, including the Graduate School. The curriculum framework of the UF's PhD program, as well as admission and graduation standards, remained unchanged. However, there was approval for additional transfer credits that could be earned in the minor area and for electives. Processes were established for review of the credentials of faculty members at the four Consortium schools partnering with the UF. Qualified faculty members from these four institutions were formally appointed as UF courtesy faculty, and those with appropriate credentials received UF graduate faculty appointments. These faculty members were oriented and prepared to function as advisors and mentors, and plans were developed for them to assist in course teaching and serve on dissertation committees. An important next step was formalization of the working relationship among all five schools. This process served to clarify expectations and to institutionalize the Consortium so that it could continue beyond the tenure of the deans/directors originally involved in its development. A formal cooperative degree agreement was signed by the nursing dean/director and the provost/academic vice president of each of the five participating state universities in 2002. This agreement specified the roles and responsibilities of each university and clarified the process for offering UF's PhD in Nursing Science through the North Florida Consortium.
Implementation and Challenges Web-based and On-site Delivery. Despite a clear plan and a formal agreement, actual implementation of the consortium model was challenging. First, all of the UF's required doctoral-level nursing courses were reviewed and determinations were made regarding the most appropriate way to offer each: live interactive video delivery, an interactive web format, or some combination thereof. Based partially on the positive experience of College of Pharmacy faculty members delivering the UF's “Working PharmD Program,” the nursing faculty selected Digiscript as the platform for web-based delivery of selected courses. Digiscript allowed for a sophisticated combination of video streaming, written text, and PowerPoint outlines. Although it was relatively easy for faculty members to develop the “first draft” of each class, editing and refining the final product were more time consuming than first anticipated. Keeping the web-based courses updated was also an ongoing process, requiring substantial faculty time. Careful selection of courses most appropriate for this type of delivery has been part of the learning process for faculty members teaching in the program. Based on course content and objectives, plans were made for a small number of in-person classes to be held each semester on either the UF campus or the campus of another participating consortium school. An important
goal of these in-person classes was to foster the socialization of doctoral students into new roles as researchers and scholars. With this in mind, on-site advisors were also identified at each partner school and specific plans were developed for regular meetings of faculty members and students located at each site. Students and faculty members arranged in advance of each semester to travel, usually one to three times a semester, for in-person meetings. Coursework has been successfully offered in the Consortium since 2003. Following the completion of coursework and successful completion of qualifying examinations, each student arranges an on-site and distance study schedule with the dissertation chair. A plan is developed to maximize each student's ability to grow in the role of researcher/scholar while recognizing constraints related to time, finances, and other obligations. Each PhD student has both on-site and distance access to the rich resources of the UF's Health Science Center Library. The UF College of Nursing has its own expert librarian who provides assistance to PhD students for searches and reference acquisitions. In addition, Consortium students at distant sites are able to utilize services from the College's Office for Research Support, including statistical consultation, mentoring in preparation of predoctoral grant applications, editorial services, and technical help in the preparation of posters and other presentation materials. Funding. The North Florida Consortium was helped significantly by a grant from the Division of Nursing (Health Resources and Services Administration, #00021229). This grant provided much of the funding for development of the Digiscript web-based courses and covered some costs for live distance delivery. Now that all participating schools have Internet2 access, the costs for interactive distance delivery have been reduced significantly. The grant also provided funds to support student and faculty travel, selected supplies for students, and salary support for the designated liaison faculty member at each participating partner school.
Results To date, 22 students have enrolled in the UF's PhD in Nursing Science Program through three of the four participating partner schools. The University of West Florida has just begun participation because of delays related to changes in the University's administration and the devastation of the Pensacola area by recent hurricanes. Three students from Consortium partner schools have earned a PhD in Nursing Science from the UF as of Spring 2006, and six faculty members at partner institutions hold courtesy faculty or graduate faculty status at the UF. The involvement of faculty members from all four partner schools in the UF PhD program has helped raise and address important questions about doctoral courses and the curriculum overall. It has also enhanced the diverse mix of faculty and student expertise while expanding the pool of qualified students and
NURSING PHD CONSORTIA: A MODEL FOR MAXIMIZING SCARCE RESOURCES
provided qualified faculty members for service on selected dissertation committees. The small number of new PhD graduates, to date, may not seem like a significant accomplishment, yet each adds substantially to the expertise available in her or his institution and geographic area. A research-focused doctoral education program is now accessible to nurses in Jacksonville, Tallahassee, and Pensacola, and the program is offered to Florida residents at in-state tuition rates, thus making it considerably more affordable than out-of-state or private school distance delivery options. Additionally, students in the Consortium PhD Program have more opportunities to know and work with faculty members and their fellow students and to become socialized as doctorally prepared nurses than is the case in many other types of distance delivered programs.
Lessons Learned There are distinct advantages to a consortium partnership for the delivery of PhD nursing education. Maximizing scarce resources—qualified students, qualified faculty, research funding, and infrastructure—are significant advantages for all involved. In addition to using existing resources strategically, a consortium can provide opportunities to garner new resources. With the North Florida Consortium, it was possible to secure a substantial federal grant to help with start-up costs and successfully launch the initiative. A second grant is being sought to further expand and improve the Consortium, including the addition of a Doctor of Nursing Practice option. Also, private funds have been successfully sought to support selected areas of the Consortium program, most particularly scholarships and faculty support. Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Florida recently provided a substantial gift, which, with a State of Florida match, will result in an endowment to sustain the Consortium. Both federal funders and those in private organizations indicated that the Consortium was an attractive program to support because the partnership was cost-effective and used scarce resources effectively while maintaining quality standards for doctoral education. The Consortium has also been recognized by Florida legislators and education policy leaders as preferable to the proliferation of new and expensive PhD programs in the state. Communication, frequent and candid, has been and continues to be a key factor in the Consortium's success. The liaison faculty members at each institution fill a critical role in helping students identify potential problems and resolve existing ones. In the past, for example, a particular challenge had to do with clarifying minor area courses that would be acceptable for interuniversity transfer credit while insuring these courses were appropriate for a given student's scholarly and research goals. After several discussions, an information sheet with specific course information for each institution was developed for use by students and liaison faculty members, and this helped clarify appropriate options and curtail potential problems. Arranging for live interactive distance delivery of
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courses presented its own set of problems as well, including the articulation of equipment across five schools, the scheduling of classrooms, and backup planning for the rare but troubling times when distance delivery simply did not work at a particular site. Developing good working relations among the distance education technicians and experts across all sites took time and effort, but the result was crucial for success. Real outreach in program delivery requires flexibility and creativity from all participants. A delicate balance is required for maintaining the quality and integrity of a doctoral program while adapting to the needs of adult distant-site learners with time constraints. UF faculty members have been engaged in ongoing efforts to maintain this balance and to insure that a PhD in Nursing Science earned through the Consortium is comparable to one earned through the traditional UF on-campus mode. Disagreement, debate, and open discussion within the UF's nursing faculty have been necessary elements for assessing and maintaining educational quality. Additionally, frequent dialogue with faculty members and PhD students from partner schools has facilitated the adoption of appropriate compromises, if not the discovery of outright solutions, for issues involving academic rigor within a context of multiple-site variations. A cornerstone for the success of the North Florida Consortium has been respect for the independence and academic integrity of each partner school. With this in mind, it has been recognized that each partner school will participate only so long as there is reciprocal benefit for its faculty and students and for the Consortium overall. The UF Graduate School rules and requirements are applied to insure integrity of the PhD education program, but these are discussed in advance with students and faculty members at partner schools. When flexibility is possible without compromising quality, efforts are made to accommodate special needs. There is recognition that the faculty at any Consortium school may eventually wish to develop its own doctoral program, should adequate resources to launch such a program be garnered. The North Florida Doctoral Consortium has accomplished two major goals: a planned and selective expansion of PhD enrollment at the UF and the delivery of high-quality, affordable doctoral education to areas of the state that had been without it. In addition, the UF faculty members teaching in the doctoral program have been challenged and enriched by exchanges with faculty members from the other Consortium schools. Perhaps the greatest lessons learned through the North Florida Consortium for Doctoral Education in Nursing are that collaboration between institutions can actually work and that modeling successful collaborative problem solving can offer students powerful learning experiences for framing their own future academic careers. Students, teachers, and administrators alike have seen that despite considerable challenges, only the joint efforts of all involved have yielded the North Florida Consortium
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outcomes; these would not have been possible through the efforts of any single institution.
Acknowledgments The deans/directors of the following nursing education programs are acknowledged for their insight and collaborative spirit: Florida A&M University, Florida State University, the University of North Florida, and the University of West Florida. These colleagues have been invaluable in the development and success of the North Florida Consortium for Doctoral Education.
References American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2001). Indicators of quality in research-focused doctoral programs in nursing. Washington, DC: Author (AACN Position Paper). Berlin, L. E. & Sechrist, K. R. (2002). The shortage of doctorally prepared nursing faculty: A dire situation. Nursing Outlook, 50, 50–56.
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