UTC’s nursing program, recently rated as nearly perfect by its accrediting agency, is poised for major expansion in the coming school year, including the opening of the area’s only doctoral program in nursing.
The launch of UTC’s fourth doctoral degree will bump the college into a new classification with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools – Level 6, the same rank as the state’s largest research universities.
“The quality of the nursing program is outstanding,” said University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Provost Phil Oldham. “It has done exceptionally well, and this is a logical next step for it to have more impact on the state and region.”
The move to start a doctoral program in the UTC College of Nursing is being driven, in part, by new standards set by the national Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, which will require all advanced practice nurses – nurse anesthetists and family nurse practitioners – to have a clinical doctorate beginning in 2015. Those nurses now are required only to have a master’s degree.
“When the economy turns around, we are going to need more nurses than ever, specifically advanced practice nurses,” said Kay Lindgren, director of the UTC school of nursing.