U-D Mercy partners with Madonna U for graduate nursing programs

The University of Detroit Mercy is expanding its nursing program to add a doctoral option for nurses to the university's curriculum.

U-D Mercy's School of Nursing is partnering with Madonna University in Livonia to develop the doctoral degree, splitting a $750,000 grant to make it happen. The idea is to create more nurses with doctorates to teach even more undergraduate nursing students, helping relieve the burgeoning nursing shortage.

Both universities have had undergraduate nursing schools since the 1940s. The Catholic universities added masters options in the 1980s and 1990s. Madonna just started its doctoral program this spring and U-D Mercy plans to start its doctoral program next year.

"This will be a nice blend to move the profession forward, especially as we move into an era of aging population and chronic illness," says Patricia Rouen, professor of nursing at U-D Mercy and co-chair of the university's doctoral nursing program.

Wayne State University has also recently nailed down $285,000 in federal funding to start its own distance learning curriculum for its nursing programs. The new curriculum will focus on psychiatric and public health fields of nursing. This will be the only graduate-level, distance-learning program in Michigan.

Source: Wayne State University and Patricia Rouen, professor of nursing at University of Detroit Mercy
Writer: Jon Zemke