PhD in Nursing
Your Journey to a PhD Begins with UofL
The Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing program is designed to prepare nurse scientists who will assume a variety of roles in education, research, leadership and health policy. Explore three different tracks with student-centered, inclusive learning environments to become a highly sought after PhD graduate.
Degree Options
BSN to PhD students complete the first year of coursework at the master’s level and then continue on to doctoral level work. The PhD in Nursing consists of at least 55 semester credit hours beyond a BSN degree plus dissertation credit hours.
The PhD in Nursing consists of at least 40 semester credit hours of coursework beyond an MSN degree plus dissertation credit hours.
DNP to PhD students enter directly into doctoral level coursework. The PhD in Nursing consists of at least 31 semester credit hours of coursework beyond a DNP degree plus dissertation credit hours.
Explore Program Details
Interested in learning more about the University of Louisville School of Nursing Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing program? Learn more on the course catalog.
PhD in Nursing FAQ
The program is designed to prepare nurse scientists who may assume a variety of roles in education, research, leadership and health policy.
BSN to PhD full-time students complete coursework in three calendar years and then focus on completion of their dissertation. MSN to PhD and DNP to PhD full-time students complete coursework in two calendar years and then focus on completion of their dissertation. Students may attend on a part-time basis and time to completion varies by the number of credits completed each semester.
Yes.
To assure that students have the opportunity to utilize the educational facilities fully and to participate in the intellectual life and research atmosphere of the University, at least two years of study must be spent at the University of Louisville and at least one must be spent in full-time residency. To be considered in full-time residency for one year, a student must be registered for 18 hours in a 12-month period.
Alternative Residency Requirement: All doctoral students must meet a 2-year enrollment requirement. The traditional residency requirement is 18 credit hours completed in a 12-month period. In lieu of the traditional residency requirement, students enrolled in part-time doctoral work may substitute four semesters of continuous enrollment. Summer terms can be used to meet this requirement, but if students are not enrolled in summer courses, four consecutive fall/spring semesters can be used to meet the requirement. To ensure that students have an intensive and immersive educational experience, students must be enrolled in at least one core nursing course each of the four semesters being counted toward the alternative residency requirement.
Yes. The maximum number of semester hours transferable, upon request, is six. Up to six additional hours may be requested and considered for special approval. Credits which have been applied toward an earned degree may not be applied toward the doctoral nursing degree.
Applicants accepted into the MSN-PhD program are strongly advised to have completed a three-credit master’s level statistics course (applied descriptive and inferential statistics) with a grade of B (3.0) or higher within five years before the date of enrollment. Applicants who do not meet this requirement will be advised of available statistics courses prior to beginning PhD coursework in statistics. In order to do a self-assessment of knowledge in statistics, the following represents anticipated basic competencies from previous statistics coursework:
- Design of research
- Frequency distributions
- Central tendency and variability
- Probability theory
- Normal distributions
- Correlation
- Simple linear regression
- Statistical inference
- Decision, error, and power
- T-tests
- One and two-way ANOVAs
- Nonparametric tests
Yes. The School of Nursing's technology requirement is the same as the University's.
View UofL's official minimum technology requirements here.
