The Board of Trustees granted Cal State Long Beach permission to plan additional new doctoral programs for physical therapy and nursing practice last week.
The plan will go into effect around fall 2012 as a means to tackle the state’s shortage of medical workers.
Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislations Assembly Bill 2382 for the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) and AB 867 for the Doctorate in Nursing Practice (DNP) last September.
“History should never dictate the educational needs of today,” President F. King Alexander said. “When these two bills were passed and signed, the governor and the state legislature gave permission for the CSU system to go beyond the California Master Plan to offer vital doctorate degrees that will have a significant impact on the future healthcare needs of this state.”
However, both the DNP and DPT programs are subject to the chancellor’s approval and determination of the need and feasibility to maintain the programs, which include financial stability and qualified faculty.
According to the AB 2382, the University of California system and CSU system, degrees in both fields must be distinguishable from one another. The schools, which include CSUs such as Cal State Northridge, will also seek professional and regional accreditation, as well as the recommendation of the California Postsecondary Education Commission.
Five CSU campuses already offer physical therapy programs, which produce one-third of the state’s graduates.
“The approval of the doctorate in physical therapy at the CSU was critical to us being in compliance with the accrediting and licensure standards of the profession,” said Kenneth Millar, dean of College of Health and Human Services. “With the doctorate in place, the CSU will maintain its leadership role in preparing the workforce for degrees.
The U.S. Bureau of Health Professionals predicts California will have a shortfall of more than 100,000 nurses in 10 years because the problem with limited nursing slots at schools is due to the limited number of nursing faculty.
“The doctor of nursing practice degree has a particular focus on preparing future nurse educators,” Millar said. “A significant contributor to the acute nursing shortage in California and, indeed, in the entire nation is that institutions of higher education do not have sufficient numbers of doctoral-trained faculty to meet the student demand in Schools of Nursing. This doctorate is an important step in addressing this shortage.”
Students are pleased with the news of the doctoral programs.
“I wouldn’t get a doctorate here, but I think it’s a big step to the impacted [nursing] major,” senior nursing major Dannielle Tayone said.
Many students in the health and sciences field also think it will give their peers more opportunities.
“[CSULB’s] additional doctoral programs definitely give more students more opportunities in the demanding fields,” said senior health care administration major Kimberly Eclarino, who wanted to be a nursing major during her upperclassmen years. “Seeing how stressed out and dismayed my friends were about getting into the nursing program made me ultimately want to change my major, so this comes as good news.”
Some people in the nursing program also think the doctoral programs will be promising for the future.
“With more staff, it would affect me and my fellow nursing classmates by letting us have more freedom of seeing patients,” senior nursing major Katherine Militar said. “We are restricted since we only get to be nurse practitioners … [E]ven with that, we have to see the patients through a primary doctor.”
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