Nursing Doctoral Program: A Partnership of MSU and Hope College

MSU's College of Nursing and Hope College establish a partnership to help bring more nursing doctoral candidates to the university. Their aim is to alleviate the deficiency of nursing faculty across the country. There are 2 spots being guaranteed by MSU: the implementation of its fast-track doctoral program and the accelerated program to qualified graduates with bachelor’s degrees from Hope College's Department of Nursing.

Senior-level undergraduate nursing students at Hope College and the new nursing graduates can take part in the course to help them prepare with their career in research. This will be implemented this fall. Barbara Given, Associate Dean for Research at the MSU College of Nursing said that they are hoping that a couple of students will be interested in MSU.  Officials of both schools are anticipating that students will prefer the fast-track program of MSU. Susan Dunn, an Associate Professor and Chairperson in Department of Nursing of Hope College lead the course with 11 registered students. The lack of nurses with doctorate degrees is a reason for the shortage of nursing faculty across the country. Ms. Given stated that most doctoral candidates are older when they begin their studies and this partnership will hopefully encourage nursing graduates to pursue doctoral degrees at a young age. In this program young scientists and young people will have longer careers. Catherine Clarey-Sanford, Assistant Nursing Professor ofHope College, stated that they are very excited about the program and they are very supportive of it. [via]