Quality of doctoral nursing education in the United Kingdom: exploring the views of doctoral students and staff based on a cross-sectional questionnaire survey.

AIM

To evaluate the quality of doctoral education in nursing in the United Kingdom.

BACKGROUND

In recent decades, doctoral education programmes in nursing are increasing worldwide. There are many reasons for this and concerns have been raised regarding the quality of provision in and across countries. To date, the quality of doctoral education on a global level has not been reported in the literature. This United Kingdom study is part of a seven country investigation into the quality of doctoral education in nursing (Australia, Japan, Korea, South Africa, Thailand, United Kingdom and United States of America).

DESIGN

A quantitative study using a cross-sectional comparative survey design.

METHOD

An online survey was administered to collect the views of doctoral students and staff members on four domains: programme, faculty/staff, resource and evaluation. The study was carried out between 2010-2012.

RESULTS

In most cases, staff perceived these more positively than students and the differences in perception were often statistically significant. Interestingly, many students rated the quality of supervision as excellent, whereas no staff member rated supervision this highly. The crucial importance of resources was confirmed in the path analysis of the four Quality of Doctoral Nursing Education domains. This demonstrates that investment in resources is much more cost-effective than investment in the other domains in relation to improving the overall quality of doctoral education in nursing.

CONCLUSION

This study has wide-ranging implications for how the quality of doctoral education is monitored and enhanced.