Another weird doctorate... (DAL)

Muskingum University

Approved the institution's request to offer the Master and Doctor of Applied Leadership (30 and 60 semester credit hours [respectively]. -HLC

https://www.muskingum.edu/gcs/doctor-applied-leadership/program-overview

 

I realize it was mentioned here too: https://www.degreeinfo.com/index.php?threads/short-or-non-residency-professional-doctorate-in-leadership.61314/page-2

 

Anything outside of PhD and EdD starts to raise an eyebrow - excepting those professions which have a specific credential recognized in those areas (e.g. ThD or DrPH)

DBA, DHA, DSc, DA, maybe I understand.

Doctor of Information Assurance (DIA)? Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL)? Doctor of Information Technology (DIT)? You lost me.

 

And there's the DGS (Doctor of Global Security) and DSI (Doctor of Security Intelligence) at APUS. Henley-Putnat at NAU has a DSS (Doctor of Strategic Security). Another one I can recall is the DEL (Doctor of Executive Leadership) at UC (WV).

 

Search for lists of professional doctorate designations. It's quite extensive.

 

I have one of those weird letter doctorate -

1. DNP: "Definitely Not Perfect"
2. DNP: "Do Not Panic"
3. DNP: "Data? Not Present"
4. DNP: "Doubts, Not Progress"
5. DNP: "Drowsy, Not Peppy"
6. DNP: "Delayed, Not Prompt"
7. DNP: "Doodles, Not Publications"
8. DNP: "Debt? Not Paid"
9. DNP: "Distracted, Not Productive"
10. DNP: "Diploma, Now Penniless"

 

Luckily with the explosion in the number of midlevels and their expanding scope of practice, I think the DNP has firmly entered the lexicon of the average patient who might not know the finer points of the differences between the Nurse Practitioner and Physician Asssistant but at least recognizes the degree.

 

This concerns me, especially NPs who fast-track their education. Going from high school to becoming a Nurse Practitioner in just three years doesn't give you much time to learn the ropes, and here's why that's worrying.

First, experience teaches you to read patients—body language, subtle "tells," and other cues you can't get from a textbook. You can miss important signs of someone faking or exaggerating symptoms if you haven't had enough real-world experience.

Second, complex conditions like somatic symptom disorders require a deep understanding. This isn't something you can grasp fully in a rushed educational setting. It takes years of practice to understand the mind-body connection in these cases.

Third, not everyone you treat will come from the same background. We're talking about different cultures and ways of expressing pain or discomfort—stuff that someone new in healthcare might not be tuned into.

Lastly, let's not forget specialized areas like anxiety, BPD, trauma, addiction, etc... These conditions require specialized training and a lot of experience to handle well.

Or maybe I'm just that old crudemon nurse with over 30 years of critical care experience.

 

I'm not in healthcare at all, so I imagine me, a non-nurse, criticizing the NP system gets some well-deserved eye-rolls. I understand that the NP program/licensure used to be intended for highly experienced nurses who brought with them thousands of hours of clinical experience and the associated skills and then added on diagnosis and prescribing and other elements specific to their subfield. Nowadays, you can complete a BSN in ~3 years, an MSN in another year, and then a DNP in 2 years and have perhaps ~2200 clinical hours when eligible for independent practice.

In comparison, a newly minted MD has at least 3000 hours from their MS3/MS4 years and then another 3000 hours for each year of residency. (Conservatively estimating 80 hours on the high end, 50 hours on the low end, averaging it out to 60 hours/week for the duration of the residency, with the understanding that some residencies like General Surgery will far exceed that.)

It's hard not to worry that a newly minted NP "doesn't know what they don't know" when staring down that kind of disparity.

 

My wife calls my doctorate from Leicester a "dosy sosy."

 

Is it normally pronounced Dee Sock Sci. Or maybe Dee Soak Sci.

 

My wife, an NP, finds this troubling, too. She was an RN for 20 years before going back to school. There, she did a huge master's (75 sh, IIRC) in a combined program from George Washington's medical school and George Mason U. It took 4 years to complete. (She worked as an ER nurse during her studies.) Now she's been an NP for nearly 20 years. She feels NPs who weren't nurses very long lack the experience in patient care necessary--experience upon which the NP role is predicated.

 

Everyone I met at Leicester called it a "dee so sci."

 

Another one I used to see at Unisa.

DLitt et Phil (Doctor of Literature and Philosophy)

Not a professional doctorate though.

 

While the title is unusual, the degree is not. Standard stuff; a series of courses followed by a comprehensive exam and a dissertation. They attempt to make the distinction between scholarly and professional doctorates, getting it half right. (Their statement about professional doctorates is spot-on, but their description of the PhD as a scholarly doctorate was written by someone who hasn’t done one.)

For those of you focused on price, this one is about $US50K when all is said and done. Also, the course have synchronous elements to them, while the degree itself can be done at a distance.

 

I could not agree more with your wife. My late wife was an RN for approximately 35 years and throughout her career I got a first hand look at her duties in a variety of nursing positions at her employing hospital. Three years to an NP post high school, to achieve what should be considered as a higher level of nursing practice, is absurd, overly optimistic and unreasonable. Nursing has been, and always will be, a highly skilled profession, and nurses really are the front line of patient care. And what's particularly bad is when there's a shortage of nurses, there becomes a pressure to fast track nursing students and put them into positions in which they lack the requisite skill level and experience. During my late wife's care I interacted with both nurses and doctors, but my daily review was with a staff nurse. Fortunately, when my late wife was cognizant she kept a close eye on her care but of course that wasn't always possible. Fortunately she was in a highly rated cancer care hospital but even they dropped the ball from time to time. Imagine what will happen if we continue to reduce requirements for advanced nursing or nursing in general. God help the layperson.