The UNM Board of Regents' Academic/Student Affairs Committee helped the College of Nursing get one step closer to establishing the state's first nursing doctoral degree program yesterday when it approved its proposal Tuesday.
The proposal, which still has several steps to take before it can become a reality, was made in an effort to prepare UNM nursing students who can assume leadership roles in academia, including the teaching, research and professional service healthcare fields.
"This will serve students from all over the state," said Sandra Ferketich, dean of the College of Nursing.
She said the program will be housed at the Health Sciences Center at UNM, but after it has been established for some years, it will work with representatives from New Mexico State University to capitalize on strengths from both.
Ferketich said the doctorate can be offered to students from both universities, but did not yet have specific plans for implementing the new degree program in both Albuquerque and Las Cruces.
Ferketich, Karen Carlson, associate dean for Academic Affairs at the college, and Nancy Uscher, associate provost for Academic Affairs, presented the proposal to the committee.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The proposed doctoral program is also meant to address the rising need of nurses that has become not only a state - but also national - trend according to a report compiled by University officials.
The report, a summary written by College of Nursing officials and given to committee members, states that more than half of the state's 27 licensed nurses that have doctorates in nursing already work at UNM.
According to a 2000 study conducted by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, of 379 faculty vacancies at 220 nursing schools across the nation, 64 percent of those vacancies were for faculty with doctoral degrees.
There are 79 doctoral degree programs in the nation, according to the report written by College of Nursing officials.
David Archuleta, Board of Regents president and chairman of the Academic/Student Affairs Committee, said a major advantage of having the doctoral degree would be the "strengthening of the University's Health Sciences Center."He also said that with the addition of the program, it would help to make UNM's School of Medicine more nationally competitive.
The degree program, which has already been approved by several groups at UNM such as the College Curriculum Committee, the Office of the Provost and the Faculty Senate, will now go before the New Mexico Board of Regents for its next approval.
The only other action item on the committee's agenda was the approval of summer session candidates who earned their degrees after completing summer courses. The candidates were all approved.
Information items on the committee's agenda included a report on the Los Alamos branch campus and a presentation by Brian Foster - provost and vice president for Academic Affairs - about faculty contracts, resignations, retirements and leaves.
