Bradley doctoral programs continue to grow and attract students

This article was originally published on The Bradley Scout's website on March 4, 2022.

With the new doctoral/professional classification that Bradley received from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, the program directors of the university’s doctoral programs hope to attract more students into the different tracks offered.

Bradley has three doctoral programs: Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT). The Ed.D. and DNP programs are fully online while the DPT program has in-person instruction with clinical opportunities in multiple states.

Each program also has a research component, where students present their work at the Student Scholarship Expo, national conferences and public events.

Doctor of Physical Therapy

Melissa Peterson, chairperson for the Department of Physical Therapy and Health Science and DPT program director, said the new classification from Carnegie will provide increased visibility of the doctoral programs.

“[The DPT] was the first doctoral program,” Peterson said. “It took a bit [of time] to get people used to that idea of being an institution that granted doctoral degrees, so it’s exciting that this is becoming more of a part of our identity.”

Physical therapy started as a bachelor’s program, with the first graduating class in 1994. The first master’s student graduated in 2002, and in 2008, the first DPT students graduated. Since 2008, it’s estimated that there have been about 300 students who have graduated.

There are currently 27 students in the program, which is slightly larger than the typical 24-student classes.

Students start during the summer by taking anatomy with a cadaver lab and a year of coursework before an eight-week full-time clinical partnered with a physical therapist. The second year repeats with two semesters of coursework focusing on patients with different conditions such as broken bones, strokes and high blood pressure. This is followed by another eight-week clinical.

During the fall of their third year, students have differential diagnosis, which is where they develop a plan of action for complex patient scenarios. Before graduation, students complete two 10-week full-time clinicals.

The DPT program ends with the National Physical Therapy Examination which provides the license to practice as a PT. Bradley has a 100% pass rate for this exam as well as a 100% graduation rate over the last several years and a 100% employment rate.

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Karin Smith, the DNP program director, oversees the curriculum and works closely with the faculty and other program directors to coordinate and facilitate student efforts.

There are five DNP tracks within the program: leadership, family nurse practitioner (NP), psychiatric mental health NP, adult-gerontology primary care NP, and adult-gerontology acute care NP. Each specialty is conducted through online courses and requires 1,000 clinical hours.

Before students graduate, they must also complete a project over four semesters that has planning, implementation and evaluation parts. The projects are based on a practice or population problem that the students aim to make a positive difference in that area.

“We’re always trying to be progressive and staying a step ahead in offering programs that are in high demand based on the population that we serve,” Smith said.

Students can use a list of affiliations when deciding where to do clinicals since they are in different states and are mostly on their own when it comes to choosing a facility that will accept them.

“It’s been a challenge during COVID with many sites across the country that are limiting the number of people within the clinic setting and the hospital setting, but the restrictions are starting to ease up and clinical sites are a little more readily available,” Smith said.

During the time of restrictions, the program directors made changes in the curriculum to allow the students to stay enrolled and on track to graduate within a normal time.

The DNP-L and DNP-FNP tracks have seen 132 graduates since 2018, and there were 48 graduates in the 2020-21 academic year. The other tracks have not seen graduates since they were launched within the last year.

Katherine Sarsfield, psychiatric mental health NP program director, said there is a good mix of students from various backgrounds in the program that was launched in the fall of 2021.

“A lot of individuals who have had interest in psych, maybe they’ve been more exposed in thinking about psychiatric conditions during the pandemic or dealing with some of the stressors of working in the healthcare field,” Sarsfield said. “And so, they have an interest in going into psych to be supportive of the needs in that area.”

Doctor of Education

Erik Dalmasso, program director for the higher education administration track of the Ed.D. program, said the program is meant to be practitioner-based instead of having a primary emphasis on scholarly research like a Ph.D. program.

Students will apply what they learn from the coursework with two internships. Dalmasso said the goal is to have students use what they learn from the curriculum and scholarship in practice.

The program director for the superintendency track, Scott Estes, said this track will focus more on the public school, private school and district-level leadership. Estes hopes to launch this program in the next year after the university finishes working with the Illinois State Board of Education to allow students to gain licensure.

As part of the capstone experience, students present their action research in March and April before graduating in May.

“Their action research component is scholarly-level work,” Estes said. “It is very similar to the dissertation process, but … it’s a little more practical to the job, but we do raise the bar of that research work that they do from the master’s level to a doctoral level to gain a better understanding.”

Although the program is new with the first two degrees granted last December, Estes and Dalmasso are having conversations about what they can improve.

“[I’m] looking at our curriculum to make sure it meets the needs of practicing professionals and making sure that it’s what our students call for and what is important for their practice,” Dalmasso said.

Dalmasso said it can take a long time for doctoral programs to get established because of the different channels universities need to go through.

“I feel like we’re in a really good place to offer these degrees and respond to market needs,” Dalmasso said. “Higher education doesn’t always do that. Sometimes we’re slow. The fact that we’re able to respond and really be proactive about what we think are attractive degree programs is essential.”