Doctoral Nursing Students’ Viewpoints about the Nursing PhD Curriculum

Introduction: Program evaluation is one of the strategies for developing and improving educational programs in every discipline and level of study. It also helps to improve the program effectiveness and efficacy. The aim of this study was to determine the doctoral nursing students’ viewpoints about the nursing PhD curriculum. Methods: A descriptive study was performed on 20 randomly selected doctoral nursing students from different universities of Iran in 2004. The data was collected using semi-structured interviews. Then, data was categorized and presented as frequency distribution. Results: The participants mentioned that the courses of PhD program could make their views towards patients more holistic. Ninety five percent of the participants requested an increase in the credit hours of “Nursing theory”, “Nursing research methods” and, “Philosophy” courses. Seventy five percent of them mentioned that “Testing and evaluation methods”, “Evaluation principles”, and “Psychology and Learning theories” courses had overlap with some courses in master program. Ninety percent emphasized on the importance of English course in PhD curriculum. Fifty five percent mentioned that the content of computer courses could not increase students’ capabilities in regard to the course objectives. Conclusion: The content of nursing PhD program is not flexible, the courses are mandatory, and the content of some courses have overlap with some courses in master program. Revising and planning educational programs according to society’s needs, can help to promote this profession.