A Comparative Study of the Ph.D. Nursing Program in Iran with the University of British Columbia, Canada

Despite the spread of the Ph.D. nursing program in the world, there are some differences in program presentation at different universities and analysis of these differences will lead to the development of the discipline. This study aimed to compare the Ph.D. nursing program in Iran with the University of British Columbia, Canada.

This descriptive-comparative study conducted in Semnan University of Medical Sciences in 2019. The latest Nursing Ph.D. curriculum was obtained by visiting the websites of the Ministry of Health of Iran and the University of British Columbia and reviewed the curriculum details of universities. The data were analyzed using the Bereday model in four stages of description, interpretation, juxtaposition, and comparison.

The University of British Columbia has nearly twice as much experience as Iran in the education of modern nursing. Admission to the University of British Columbia is without an exam and student education is at the international level, while in Iran it is centralized through national exams. The philosophy of Iranian Ph.D. nursing is based on Islamic standards. Optional courses at the University of British Columbia focus on the nursing process and in both universities are selected based on the supervisorchr('39')s opinion and the dissertation subject. At British Columbia, student obtains up to 15% of the thesis score in self-assessment, while in Iran; the student has no involvement in his assessment.

The Iranian Nursing Ph.D. program differs from the University of British Columbia in matters such as antiquity, adherence to Islamic standards, the implementation of the nursing process, self-assessment, and the number of optional courses. In order to improve the quality of Iranian Ph.D. nursing, it is suggested that while examining the curriculum content, nursing process courses added to the curriculum, and clinical experience considered as a necessary condition for entering the Ph.D. course.