Trinity Western University (TWU) has announced its first doctoral program in philosophy of nursing which will use Christian values to inform nursing education.
According to TWU, the program is also Canada’s first faith-based PhD nursing program and joins 18 other Canadian nursing programs that offer a doctorate degree. More than just providing a niche perspective into health care, the university says the program is attempting to address the need for more PhD-trained nurses.
Sheryl Reimer-Kirkham, dean of nursing at TWU, pointed to B.C. as a prime example of this need. The province has pledged to increase nursing programs’ student capacity by 25 per cent as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to exacerbate a shortage in health-care workers.
“There’s a deep need for PhD-prepared nurses to support universities who are looking to increase the number of nurses they graduate,” Reimer-Kirkham said.
B.C. had a hiring demand for 155 PhD nurses in 2019, despite only 46 students graduating with a nursing PhD in 2018, according to research from the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing.
“You can’t get more nurses to the point of care to replace and to support the nurses who are leaving, without masters and doctorally-prepared nurses,” Reimer-Kirkham said.
As admission rates in nursing programs have increased by 73 per cent in Ontario, Reimer-Kirkham said there are not enough PhD-trained nurses to support the need for educators in nursing.
She added that problems in health care, such as vaccine inequities, have been exposed during the pandemic and will lead to more health-care worker burnout.
“Nurses and others in the health field face such deep existential questions in the face of who we care for, also big existential questions around how healthcare services are delivered,” Reimer-Kirkham said.
TWU’s doctoral program aims to provide theological answers to these existential questions, such as why suffering exists and why some people cannot be saved. Reimer-Kirkham said these questions have become more relevant with COVID-19 in the face of vaccine inequity.
Using Christian ethos, TWU aims to provide students with religious philosophy to help deal with trying times in nursing.
Jill Altamirano is a third-year science of nursing student at TWU and co-president of the university’s Nursing Students’ Association. During her work in a psychiatric ward, the focus on Christian values helped Altamirano deal with seeing pain and loss.
“Suffering such as that is so great and so big and so troubling to my heart,” Altamirano said. “Leaning into something bigger than me really helps, I find, and prayer really helps me as well.”
The four-year doctoral program, set to start in September 2022, will run online and include an in-person residence in Langley, B.C. and at the Laurentian Leadership Centre in Ottawa, Ont.
The first cohort will include only four students. Administrators said there are both Christian and non-Christian applicants.
According to Reimer-Kirkham, nursing education in non-secular universities references the same values that will be present in this program, such as equity and compassion. The difference with TWU’s doctoral program will be how the teaching of these values is approached.
“Strong equity, compassion, those kinds of values that we would see as well aligned with most all religions really,” Reimer-Kirkham said. “We are maybe just more overt in connecting the dots as to where the values come from, that really actually do influence the profession.”
Featured image provided by Trinity Western University.
