DNP Role Development for Doctoral Advanced Nursing Practice, Second Edition

1: THE HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL PATH OF DOCTORAL NURSING EDUCATION ■ 13

not belong in the same program, but that it is a matter of emphasis. The AACN, however,
is quite precise in stating that the DNP degree should not be described as a clinical doctor-
ate, but a “practice doctorate” stating: “The Task Force recommended that the terminology,
practice doctorate be used instead of clinical doctorate” (2004a, p. 4). Is the reason for this
distinction (i.e., calling the DNP a “practice” doctorate and not a “clinical” doctorate) the
realization that our earlier clinical doctorate nursing models did include both a clinical
and research emphasis (and the desire, at least by the AACN leadership at the time, was to
move away from this type of degree model)? We will later revisit two universities that tried
to resurrect different models of the “clinical doctorate” in 2005, but their curricular innova-
tions were not adopted by others (Dreher et al., 2005; Mundinger, 2009).
Second, the arrival of the PhD at the University of Pittsburgh in 1954 was perhaps
better timed than the PhD at New York University in 1934 for the slow maturation of the
field of nursing to a discipline. The profession’s first research journal, Nursing Research ,
was founded in 1952, and this author discusses at length the early struggles of the jour-
nal to attract enough high- level, true research- oriented submissions in Chapter 15 in
Philosophy of Science for Nursing Practice: Concepts and Applications (Dreher, 2010a, 2016a).
The profession also benefited, especially the specialty of psychiatric– mental health

EXHIBIT 1.1 The Indiana University Nursing Story

University- based nursing education began in 1914

Sigma Theta Tau founded in 1922 by six educators from Indiana University Training School

for Nurses

BSN curricula first established 1932

MS first offered 1945

MSN first offered 1966

DNS approved 1976

First DNS degree awarded 1981

Planning for PhD began 1990

DNS converts to PhD 1996

DNP degree approved 2009

BSN, bachelor of science in nursing; DNP, Doctor of Nursing Practice; DNS, doctor of nursing science; MS,
master of science; MSN, master of science in nursing; PhD, doctor of philosophy.

TABLE 1.1 The First Quest for an Alternative Nursing Doctorate to the PhD

Iteration #1: The “Doctor of

Nursing Science” degree: DNSc

First at Boston University 1960, later at University of

California San Francisco (UCSF), Penn, Columbia, Yale,

Catholic, Rush, Widener, etc... all phased out now

Iteration #2: The “Doctor of

Science of Nursing” degree: DSN

First at the University of Alabama- Birmingham 1975, later

at East Tennessee State, U Texas Health Sciences- Houston,

West Virginia, etc... all phased out now

Iteration #3: The “Doctor of

Nursing Science” degree: DNS

First at Indiana University 1976, later at Arizona State,

LSU Health Sciences Center (LSUHSC), University of

Buffalo, etc... all of these are phased out except LSUHSC,

Kennesaw State University, and the Sage Colleges

LSU, Louisiana State University.