Doctor of Nursing

The Doctor of Nursing at the University of Notre Dame Australia is a research doctorate for nurses who want to produce new knowledge in their field. Over three years full time, you'll work on a single supervised research project and write a thesis that makes an original contribution to nursing practice, education, policy or workforce research. There are no coursework units to grind through in the usual sense, this is a research degree, and your time goes into reading, designing your study, collecting and analysing data, and writing. You'll have a supervisor (and usually a co-supervisor) guiding you through each stage, with milestone reviews along the way to keep the project on track.

How the degree is structured

Australian doctorates sit at the top of the AQF and normally run three years full time, or part time equivalent. At Notre Dame, that means a confirmed research proposal early on, a formal confirmation of candidature, then the bulk of your time on the thesis. Some candidates complete a thesis by publication, where chapters are papers already submitted or published in peer-reviewed journals. Others write a traditional monograph. Either way, the degree is examined by external academics who assess whether your work is original, rigorous and worth a doctorate. Nursing doctorates often draw on clinical data, health service records, interviews with nurses and patients, or workforce surveys, the method depends on your question.

Where you'll do the work

Notre Dame has campuses in Fremantle, Broome and Sydney, and nursing is one of its established disciplines. Research candidates are based in the School of Nursing and Midwifery and work alongside academics with clinical and health services research interests. The university's research institutes and its links to hospitals, aged care providers and community health organisations give doctoral candidates access to real clinical settings for data collection. If your project involves patients or health records, you'll need ethics approval through the university's human research ethics committee before you start, that's standard in Australia and it's a step your supervisor will walk you through.

Who this suits

This doctorate suits registered nurses with a master's degree (or a bachelor's with honours, or equivalent research experience) who want to move into academic nursing, senior clinical leadership, health policy or research roles. You'll need to show you can work independently, manage a long project, and write at a high academic level. International applicants need to meet the university's English requirements, for nursing, that generally means IELTS Academic 7.0 to 7.5 overall, or an accepted equivalent such as TOEFL iBT, PTE Academic or Cambridge C1 Advanced. The Department of Home Affairs sets its own English threshold for the Student visa, separate from the university's. Tuition is published on the CRICOS register under course code 052527E, and you should check the official Notre Dame pages for current fees, scholarship options and application deadlines.

• Nurse academic or lecturer, teaching and researching in Australian universities and TAFEs
• Nurse researcher, in hospitals, health services, research institutes and clinical trials units
• Director of nursing or senior clinical leader, in public and private hospital groups, aged care and community health
• Health policy adviser, in state and federal health departments, professional bodies and peak nursing organisations
• Clinical nurse consultant or nurse practitioner pathway, advanced practice roles in hospitals and primary care
• Quality and safety manager, in health services, accreditation and clinical governance
• Research fellow or postdoctoral researcher, continuing a research career after the doctorate

Australian industries that hire nursing doctorates include higher education, public and private hospitals, primary health networks, aged care providers, government health agencies, medical research institutes and professional nursing bodies. International graduates may be eligible for the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) post-study work stream, which allows you to stay and work in Australia after completing your degree. While you study, a Student visa generally lets you work up to 48 hours per fortnight.