Tracy,

I will endeavor to take a likely unpopular position on this.

Valerie is correct when she states that the preference voiced by nurse
educators is for a phd in nursing... BUT...

First, are you already at the institution you want to remain at? If so
and they accept the idea of doing the EdD you will likely not
experience any loss in a program that will be easier for you to
complete. That is, if they accept it for tenure and promotion you will
experience little economic or political advantage in taking an
arguably more difficult (travel & expense) program...

Second, look at the completion rates for the choices you have. Many
are called, few are chosen. While you are always an individual and can
WILL yourself to complete regardless of the experiences of others,
going through a program with a 10% completion rate v a program with a
75% completion rate is likely to present a lot of difficult
challenges. There may be all manner of reasons for the different rates
of success but it should be an important consideration in your
decision-making. Doctorate status is different than prolonged doctoral
student or doctoral candidate status...

Third, do you want to do research and if so in what area? It may or
may not be important for you to pick one v the other. BUT - it will
also be important to consider the classes you take - if you load up on
stats, qual research - options that may not be available because of
time, cost, and access to a broad variety of classes at the distant
site - it might hurt you more to do the nursing program and not get
the research content you would need... Of course, you need to assess
the ability to do cross-disciplinary courses in each program if this
is where you want to go.

In general, nursing like social work, tends to focus on perceived
inadequate market supplies without assessing market demand. Is there a
nursing shortage - perhaps... Is there a great market demand for
nurses - not quite so clear. There is certainly a great demand for
low-cost nursing staff - not such a great demand for higher cost,
value added nursing staff. So if health care organizations can hire
nurses cheaply enough to be indifferent to whether they are skilled to
do more than clerical work, many poorly operated health care
organizations will hire cheap nurses. It is not at all so clear that
health care organizations can or do distinguish between nurses at
different performance levels. Nursing education, in general, would
have to be demonstrated to behave differently than health care
organizations before I would act on faith...

Fourth, what are the economic consequences, as best you can forecast
them? If it will take you more time to complete the nursing program
there are likely costs associated with that. How long will it take to
achieve the same relative economic position in the two programs? How
long do you expect to stay in nursing education? Will there be a
plateau each way in the future or will there be a point at which the
benefits of the nursing phd will become far more valuable than the EdD
program? If you like where you are and are going to plateau at the
same salary and position level no matter which program you complete -
it probably makes sense to get there sooner... In short, what is the
marginal economic and social advantage of the nursing phd at 5, 10,
15, 20, 30 years from the start of your doctoral program?

In the faculty market the same applies as in the RN environment. Many
look at the relative paucity of nursing PhDs in education and suggest
shortages - but many schools are addressing the shortage by hiring
more non-tenure track MS prepared faculty and faculty from other
disciplines to fill their faculty positions.

Many schools, for budgetary or political reasons, will hire the lowest
cost personnel to fill positions - nursing PhDs may not be thrilled
teaching undergrads and may just be painting themselves into a corner
where their skills sets are narrow while the skills sets desired by
academic institutions are fairly broad. If 'teaching' is your primary
goal - it may be to your advantage to be in an education program where
there may be more emphasis on teaching expertise - i.e. you will see
people with good education skills and have many courses that emphasize
good education skills.

Just on a lark I applied to the community college nursing program in
FL where I 'live.' one might assume they would be jumping for joy to
have a nursing phd even apply - that does not appear to be the case. I
would be highly unlikely to take the position even if offered because
I do not want to teach in a CC setting - but it is sobering to
consider that I am likely the only PhD in nursing that even applied
and to misquote George Tenet - it is not a 'slam dunk.' Demand is very
different than supply! Of course, they may realize that I would not
want to stay for very long teaching 3 - 5 classes per semester because
of 'shortages' in faculty but the same is true in other institutions -
some schools will find the nursing PhD desirable and some will find it
undesirable.

I could, of course, go on forever. A small part of the consideration
should be the collective consciousness among nursing educators that a
nursing phd is 'obviously' the best answer - but most of your
attention should be focused on far more pragmatic considerations that
address your very unique circumstances...

bear


--- In Martha_E_Rogers@yahoogroups.com, "Tracy Edwards" <tracy_e@c...>
wrote:
> I have a personal question for the group.
>
>
>
> I want to get my PhD. I have 3 options.
>
> 1. PhD in Education through my parent institution of
where I
> teach. (1/2 off tuition for faculty)
>
> 2. Online PhD in nursing. Focus of the program not
really in
> my interest area, but is do-able.
>
> 3. Drive a total of 6 hours round trip to the "closest"
> traditional PhD program to Oklahoma City.
>
>
>
> If my plans are to remain in some component of nursing education
(teaching,
> research, etc), would I be better served by an education PhD or a
nursing
> PhD?
>
>
>
> I am stuck between the Education and Nursing option. I would like
to hear
> your opinions on the subject.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Tracy Edwards
>
>
>
> Ps. Please reply to me @ tracy_e@c... so as to not clog up the group
> e-mail.