With its research focus on professional practice, the professional doctorate is a part-taught, doctoral-level award, equivalent to the traditional PhD or DPhil, and this programme will help nurses who remain within the clinical arena to develop knowledge and skills related to research methods and methodologies.

The aim of the Professional Doctorate in Nursing (DNurs) is to help professionals to manage their own learning in order to promote high levels of critical understanding and professional application. The DNurs has been designed to offer the opportunity to study nursing theory and practice and develop research skills in order to carry out doctoral level research. The programme is for qualified nurses who are working within clinical practice and wanting to explore practice in greater depth and through the application of research knowledge and skills. It offers the opportunity to explore nursing theory and research methodologies through a programme of taught modules, which will provide a basis for the final thesis.  The thesis gives the opportunity to research a specific issue of professional concern in depth, and to demonstrate a new contribution to nursing knowledge. During the programme the students will become independent, critically reflective and competent researchers. 

In summary, this professional doctorate programme aims to provide a deeper knowledge, understanding and awareness of nursing. It will provide opportunities; to study the methodology and methods of health care research, especially nursing research, and ensure the development of research skills. The programme aims to develop and produce independent, reflective, and competent researchers by providing the opportunity (through thesis completion) to undertake professionally relevant research which creates new knowledge and contributes to professional knowledge in nursing.

On successful completion of the programme, graduates will demonstrate the following Brookes Attributes:

Academic literacy

• draw from theoretical frameworks used in nursing contexts to engage critically in theoretical analysis of nursing issues;
• use knowledge and skills in research methodology to influence professional nursing practice;
• extend the current limits of theoretical and research understanding and demonstrate a contribution to the creation of original knowledge in nursing

Research literacy

• demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of research paradigms, methodologies and approaches appropriate to the study of nursing;
• select from a range of research methods to develop a nursing research project;
• make a significant contribution to the wider nursing community and to nursing practice by successfully completing a substantial and original research project;
• develop using the researcher development framework to ensure personal and professional development as a nursing researcher

Critical self-awareness and personal literacy

• manage personal learning by identifying own learning needs, clarifying personal values, setting personal objectives, managing own time and evaluating own performance;
• demonstrate autonomy and leadership within the realms of nursing practice, especially in relation to the assessment and resolution of research and professional problems.

Digital and information literacy

• identify, locate, evaluate and use information relevant to nursing and wider health care related research; organise and manage complex data sets;
• use appropriate technology to identify, analyse and evaluate high quality information; engage productively in relevant online communities and adopt appropriate technologies for communication.

  Active citizenship

• Show a high level of awareness and management of ethical dilemmas likely to arise both in research and professional practice;
• Participate professionally in research and specialised nursing communities, reflecting on own and others’ practice to enable analysis and development of own and other’s professional practice to inform nursing care delivery

Specific Entry Requirements

• An Upper Second or First Class Honours Degree from a UK or overseas recognised institution and/or relevant Postgraduate study.
• Must be currently registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council in the UK or equivalent registration within their residing country.
• Must have a minimum of three years post-qualification / registration experience
• If English is not the first language, must have completed the British Council’s IELTS achieving an overall score of level 6.5/ 7 or above in line with the University PG regulations.  The NMC requires an overall IELTS score of 7.
• APL will only be considered for students who have graduated previously with an MPhil or MRes degree with a relevant health care focus.  The students will gain entry into the programme at the level 8 stage

DBS and other pre-course checks required

Students are required to evidence they have an up-to-date DBS check completed by their employer before applying to commence their studies at the university.

Research proposal

As part of the application, students are required to submit a research proposal to hlsapplications@brookes.ac.uk. The research proposal must be 2000 words and based on a research idea related to practice. The proposal needs to demonstrate why the student has identified this problem, why it is an area that needs exploration with rationale and how the student will research it. They may want to follow the structure below:

 

• Title
• Background information/brief summary of existing literature
• The Aim/question and the objectives
• Methodology
• How the research will be communicated to the wider community
• Ethical considerations
• Summary and conclusions

 

The programme has been designed to support the development of an increasingly active and independent researcher and writer by providing a blend of learning approaches designed to promote intellectual autonomy.  These include face-to-face seminars and workshop activities; guided online activities; student-led seminars, and individual tutorial and supervision sessions.

Teaching and learning strategies will encourage you to:

• engage and explore new areas of knowledge;
• build on and deepen your existing knowledge, understanding and skills in nursing and research;
• engage in critical analysis of texts, concepts, theories and practices and reflect on a range of professional issues, questions, concepts, theories, policies and practice encountered in your studies;
• interrogate the assumptions underpinning theory and research in order to come to an understanding of the significance and limitations of theory and research;
• develop appropriately informed research skills.

Assessment

Students will be assessed in each of the modules undertaken on the taught component of the programme. The types of assessments used within this programme are varied; including reflective essays, critical analysis of evidence based practice, presentations, concept analysis  and a ‘portfolio of learning’ based on the Vitae ‘Researcher Development Framework.’ The taught modules are progression to the research stage of the programme and will be assessed on a pass or fail basis only. 

The research component of the programme involves each student working with their supervisory team which includes a Director of Studies (first supervisor) and up to 2 further supervisors, to undertake research into their chosen area of professional practice. The research will be presented as a 65,000 word thesis which will be submitted at the end of year 5 (September) and defended in a viva voce examination within 3 months of submission.  

Award of the DNurs will be made when the external and internal examiners have examined the thesis and the student has successfully defended their research in the viva examination.  All recommendations for the award have to be approved by the Science and Technology Sub-Committee of the Research Degrees Committee.