New Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program Highlights Nursing Education and Urban Education

Eastern Michigan University, formerly Michigan State Normal College, has remained true to its heritage as a teacher training school by creating a new doctoral program that will offer concentrations in nursing education and urban education. When MSNC was established as the first normal college outside of the original 13 colonies, the founders embraced a need for providing quality education to the individuals in southeastern Michigan. This founding principal still guides our faculty and administrators today.

Earlier this spring the University recently approved a new Ph.D. program in educational studies, its fourth Ph.D. program, to assist in training and preparing individuals striving for careers in Nursing and Urban Education.

The new interdisciplinary program was developed by colleagues from the School of Nursing and our nationally acclaimed Department of Teacher Education. Drawing from our strengths in teacher education and nursing, the program creators sought to create a program of study to prepare the next generation of nurse educators and urban educators.

Dr. Barbara Scheffer, one of the program's creators noted, "Our unique, interdisciplinary Ph.D. program will make a significant contribution to the growing shortage of nurse educators. It is that nurse educator shortage that is creating a bottleneck nationally and limiting the number of students entering nursing programs. With more nurse educators we will be able to increase nursing admissions at the entry level, and with more nurse educators prepared to address issues of diversity among students, the better we will be able to provide for diversity in the nursing workforce."

Dr. Scheffer explained that the new interdisciplinary Ph.D. program will be offered for the first time in August this year. The first cohort will include 30 students, half will focus on nursing education and the other half will focus on urban education but all will work together in the beginning to draw on the expertise of each others' knowledge base.

Although there are currently no additional public funding sources for this new degree initiative, Dr. Scheffer remains hopeful that in time, and with success, the State and other public and private agencies will see both the vitality and importance of this unique program. To promote the program further and to continually build excitement for the program, the School of Nursing is hosting their second Nursing Alumni Association event on October 7 at the University House from 5 – 7 p.m. For more information on the event, you can contact Rachel Whitmore at 734.487.8278 or rachel.whitmore@emich.edu.

"We realize that through our successes, more will come," she added. "All of our current professors are doctorally prepared. With that level of talent along with the program's ability to meet a national and state need, it will be hard for this program to stay off the radar for too long."

And from the sounds of it, that is exactly what Dr. Scheffer is banking on. This is just another example of how our remaining true to our "normal" roots can provide solutions for an ever-changing world that will pay off for generations to come.