The purpose of this project is to prepare nurse scientists through a new Nursing PhD Program to assume roles as health care researchers, faculty, and health care administrators with an emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention (HPDP) in underserved and rural populations. The student’s plan of study is focused on HDPD in underserved and rural populations considering the state’s unique features of changing demography and sparsely populated areas impeding access to quality care. 

             The Nursing PhD Program is based on the belief that nursing science can make significant and original contributions to nursing knowledge and practice. South Dakota is one of six states in the Western Interstate Commission of Higher Education without a doctoral program in nursing.  The project is essential to the academic maturation of the nursing profession and the improvement of health care in SD.  The Nursing PhD Program will educate nurse researchers prepared to study the most effective nursing and health care interventions to improve nursing practice.  The program will produce qualified nursing faculty to keep the state’s nursing programs at peak capacity and quality to educate nurses for the future. 

          Of note, only 55% of nursing faculty positions are held by fully-qualified permanent faculty members, leaving 45% of positions filled by unqualified faculty. To produce the necessary number of faculty to prepare the number of nurses needed in the state, and to replace the retiring faculty, the South Dakota Board of Nursing estimates the state needs 40 new qualified faculty in the next 10 years.  The program will also produce nurse executives as leaders to increase access to quality health care at a reasonable cost.