by Joe Tougas '86
They weren't jockeying for a doctorate. Faculty in the School of Nursing and the Department of Counseling and Student Personnel at Minnesota State University, Mankato were just doing what they've always done – embarking on dynamic research that advanced the disciplines and bolstered the programs' reputations.
So when the doctorate degree finally came to town, both were well poised to embrace the challenge and, in doing so, accompany the University into a new era.
In 2005, the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System won legislative approval to offer six applied doctorate degrees. Prior to that, the only state institution permitted to grant doctorates was the University of Minnesota. The new law allows the System to offer applied doctorates in nursing, audiology, psychology, education, physical therapy and business.
Minnesota State Mankato will offer four doctorates in three of those programs – nursing, psychology and education. The first two out the door, scheduled to be offered in fall of 2007, are the DNP (Doctorate of Nursing Practice) and the Ed.D. (Doctorate of Education).
When the opportunity arose for the DNP, Minnesota State Mankato's nursing faculty – who were already offering a master's degree – ultimately felt well-suited to take the step, particularly as part of a consortium that includes Minnesota State Mankato, Winona State University, Metropolitan State University in St. Paul and Minnesota State University Moorhead. The DNP looked to be, at the time, the one degree for which all four schools had the resources if they collaborated, says Dr. Sonja Meiers, graduate coordinator for the University's nursing program.
"These schools have been talking for years," Meiers says. "When our schools were really first able to offer the nurse practitioner program, there was a collaboration. And that was legislatively supported, so when this became possible legislatively, here was another opportunity."
Meiers praised the deans and directors of the schools in the consortium for having a progressive eye on how this new degree, the DNP, will eventually replace the master's as the entry–level requirement for advanced-practice nursing. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing recommends that conversion by 2015.
To be approved as doctorate-granting bodies, schools need to demonstrate a high level of active scholarship by faculty. This is where Minnesota State Mankato's School of Nursing is particularly well-prepared.
The Family Nursing Research Team, which includes Dr. Mary Bliesmer (chair of the Nursing department), Dr. Patricia Earle, Dr. Sandra Eggenberger, Dr. Norma Krumwiede and Meiers, has coauthored several journal articles, book chapters and presentations while continually integrating family concepts, theory and nursing into both graduate and undergraduate curricula. The team also undertook a project linking aesthetic expression and nursing practice, and presented the 2005 Douglas Moore Faculty Research Lecture on how families deal with chronic illness.
Eggenberger's research is focused on families that have an adult family member hospitalized with a critical illness. Her work revveals how those families develop a pattern of recognizing vulnerability suffering the struggle together as they endure uncertainty.
Meiers has authored or coauthored eight journal articles, three book chapters, two international paper presentations, three national paper presentations, four local and regional paper presentations and four peer-reviewed national and international poster presentations, all in family nursing.
Other faculty research includes work by Dr. Donna Brauer in managing chronic illness, Drs. Patricia Young and Marcia Stevens in nursing education, Dr. Sue Bell on nursing ethics and community health nursing, and Dr. Karen Willette-Murphy's sleep research.
"We do it because we're committed to advancing the discipline," Meiers says. "It's really not to prepare to offer doctorate education; it's just what we do."
Legislative approval was the first step. The consortium has developed a curriculum that has been approved by the System. At the same time, the System and the universities have to be approved to offer doctorate education by the Higher Learning Commission. Approval is expected from the HLC this spring.
Most students pursuing a DNP are nurse practitioners or clinical nurse specialists already equipped with an advanced degree. But advances in time and technology warrant a doctorate. "The amount of information and the amount of science to inform clinical decision-making has increased exponentially," Meiers says.
Doctorate coursework will also relate to organizational and political issues, the latter of which would involve advocacy for policy at state and federal levels. The American Medical Association, for instance, is formally opposed to a practice doctorate in nursing, citing concerns that granting doctorates in nursing practice could confuse patients and lead to misrepresentation by nurses as possessing medical doctorates.
Thus, it's important to keep track of state and federal policy trends as they pertain to the field, says Bliesmer, who chairs the department.
Contrary to AMA's concerns, Meiers says the DNP will just enhance the collaborative process between nurses and physicians. "Medicine and nursing complement each other very well in that the kinds of and illnesses, injuries that become diagnosed by physicians and advanced practice nurses can be managed by nurses," Meiers says. "Symptom management is really a priority. Dealing with the responses that occur in the body and psyche related to the health experience really is our context for healing."
Professor of psychology Kevin Filter teaches members of his research team to code problem behavior for a master's thesis project relating to behavioral assessment. The team's other projects include an online survey of the professional practices and perceptions of all school psychologists in Minnesota, and a thesis project in which children with Autism are trained to name objects using three different models of reinforcement.
The Counseling and Student Personnel department in the University's College of Education has faculty whose work makes waves – and news. Work such as that of Dr. Walter Roberts, the author of "Bullying from Both Sides," a popular book for school counselors.
"One of the reasons we're in this position is because we do have a record of solid scholarship and solid research production," says Dr. Rick Auger, the department chair.
He has plenty to point to. There's Dr. John Seymour, whose research into play therapy, medical family therapy and professional ethics has him presenting at conferences internationally. There's Dr. Jennifer Pepperell, who for the past two years has been studying the social and emotional development of girls when they transition from elementary school to junior high.
"A lot of existing research talks about how difficult it is," Pepperell says. "I'm finding when girls have a solid connection to family or friends, even if it's a small connection, the transition can be smoother than originally thought."
There's Dr. Diane Coursol's research which includes technology in counseling, workplace bullying, trauma and the counseling process; and Dr. Jacqueline Lewis' research, which includes technology in student affairs in counseling, career development, workplace bullying and diversity. Dr. Lewis has received several grants for research about online counseling including one from the North Central Association of Counselor Education and Supervision. Drs. Coursol and Lewis have collaborated on several publications on technology in higher education and counseling, a cuttingedge topic in the field, for the American Counseling Association's seminal series Cybercounseling and Cyberlearning. And Drs. Lewis, Coursol, and Seymour have expanded online counseling research to include an investigation of online supervision – they're currently involved in an online supervision project funded by the Minnesota Association of Marriage and Family Therapy and authorized by the Minnesota Board of Marriage and Family Therapy.
For the past six years, Auger and former counseling chair Dr. Anne Blackhurst have been researching career development through the eyes of developing children. They began by asking children in first, third and fifth grades what they wanted to be when they grew up. The idea is to follow them into their careers. "And hopefully develop some insight into how kids develop their ideas about career, whether it's intentional or happenstance," Auger says. The group they're tracking is now in seventh, ninth and eleventh grade.
Overall, research permeates the program. "The benefit to our students is that when they're in class with faculty members in our department we can talk both about what the literature says but also about some of the research we're doing as faculty," Auger says. "And I think that adds interest and relevance to what we say. It also teaches students about the value of research, and we're expecting that's going to be a very fundamental part of the doctoral program."
For decades, the department has offered a master's program and enjoyed a solid reputation as one of the University's signatures. In 1986, it became the first nationally accredited counseling program in the five-state region. Faculty embraced the opportunity to offer a doctorate.
"I think at the point when the Legislature changed the rules, we were in a position where we had a history of offering quality graduate programs," Auger says.
In April, faculty wrote curriculum proposals for 23 new courses that will comprise the core of the doctoral program. It's daunting work, but expectations are high.
There are just a few institutions in the five-state area offering Counselor Education and Supervision – the title of Minnesota State Mankato's doctoral degree – and no such degree available in Minnesota.
"There's this void," Auger says. "So we see a need and interest on the part of prospective students for an Ed.D degree in Counselor Education and Supervision…There are mental health needs in the region that are not well served, where people who are counselor–educators could at least have an indirect impact."
Auger says there are also benefits for master's students, who will be supervised by the doctoral students — who are professional counselors themselves. "I think that's going to be beneficial to both groups," Auger says. "What we anticipate is people who come into this doctoral program will be practitioners who have been out there working in the field for a number of years. They'll have that practical experience and they'll be able to add a layer of supervision that will benefit our students."
Those who seek a doctorate do so for a variety of reasons, Auger says. Some are at the point where they're interested in teaching at the university level. Some may be eligible for enhanced positions in their field, including those working on a college campus who want to elevate academically.
"There are also some people who are just interested in professional development," Auger says. "They've been out of school for a while, they feel they've lost touch with professional literature and just feel a need to re-tool, re-train."
Professors of educational leadership Scott Wurdinger, with laptop at left, and Julie Carlson, at right, work with graduate students on studies investigating student experiences at the Minnesota New Country School in Henderson and analyzing current trends in educational leadership preparation.
Elsewhere in the College of Education, Dr. Jerry Robicheau has been in the Educational Leadership department since 2004. Robicheau's previous position was superintendent of schools in Inver Grove Heights – the type of job a person gets with an Ed.D. in educational leadership. And Minnesota State Mankato's aim is to have that Ed.D. available in the 2008 school year.
Robicheau says his department is ready for the opportunity, as is the market. He and a colleague recently embarked on a study that predicts a drastic turnover in public school administration within the next six years. Fifty-two percent of Minnesota school administrators and school leaders, he predicts, will have vacated their jobs through either retirement or career switches.
The educational leadership doctorate will have two strands of focus that overlap: K-12 school leadership and experiential education. Core classes taken by all would include organizational structures, ethics and internships.
"And then they'll focus in on their particular strand of what they want to do," Robicheau says, "but the whole emphasis will be on leadership development — the knowledge, skills and dispositions that leaders need in today's world."
The department put together its proposal a year ago, so when the administration approached this year and encouraged a 2008 launch, Robicheau said all systems were go. "We just needed to do some restructuring, but we felt we were well down the path to get this set up and get it done in time.
Work yet to be done includes enhancing the research component of the curriculum itself so students can become involved further in projects like studying the effects of public policy.
Also to be launched in 2008 is the University's third doctorate, the Psy.D. in School Psychology.
"Everything's lining up," says Dr. Kevin Filter, who's coordinating the psychology department's doctoral planning process. The formal proposals have not yet been submitted, but will be later this spring, Filter says.
The Psy.D at Minnesota State Mankato will accept not only working practitioners, but students straight from undergraduate studies. The intention, Filter says, is to have students working side by side with practitioners.
Joe Tougas is a Mankato-based freelance writer and a regular contributor to both TOMORROW and TODAY, the magazine for alumni and friends of Minnesota State Mankato.
