Health Professions Education (EdD)

Program Mission

Allen College provides a quality doctoral program that prepares individuals from culturally, racially, and ethnically diverse communities for teaching and leadership roles in the health sciences. The online Doctor of Education in Health Professions Education (EdD-HPE) program focuses on teaching that reflects societal needs for education in a variety of post-secondary educational settings and is dedicated to preparing individuals for the highest level of educational teaching and leadership.

Ed.D. Program Goals

• Prepare educators and leaders for roles in a variety of educational settings.
• Provide graduate education programs of excellence through the use of information, communication and practice.
• Provide leaders in policy formation, problem solving, service and teaching.
• Improve quality delivery and outcomes in the practice arenas of health care, administration and education.
• Develop health care educators to function as facilitators, innovators, leaders and consultants.

The philosophy and purpose of the Ed.D.-HPE program arise from the mission, philosophy and goals of Allen College. The faculty believes that doctoral education in health sciences education provides the student with learning that emphasizes critical evaluation of the concepts and theories that underlie the nature and practice of teaching and the extension of the processes of inquiry developed at the master's and baccalaureate levels (problem solving, critical thinking and research). The purpose of this learning is to develop and test knowledge and to translate the evidence into teaching practice. The faculty recognizes that diverse areas of specialization are guided by an ever changing state of knowledge and emerging societal needs. These provide the groundwork promoting leadership and the ongoing advancement of new knowledge in a variety of health education disciplines.

The faculty also believes that students bring diverse and varying educational, personal and cultural experiences to their graduate studies. These are valuable to the program and student learning and provide strengths that must be fostered within the educational environment. Students are recognized as self-directed scholars with specific learning needs to support both independent and collaborative practice. The learning environment for doctoral study emphasizes collegial relationships with students, faculty and professionals from other disciplines.

The faculty believes in the values and goals of higher learning and supports the mission of education, scholarship, practice and service. Doctorally prepared educators function in the roles of experts and leaders in various health science disciplines and contribute to the body of knowledge that provides a base for practice and the development of those disciplines. Further, doctoral education requires learning experiences and environments that reflect the multicultural composition of the world and the skill of influencing the sociopolitical process as a means of affecting the health care of individual, families and populations.

In concert with the philosophy of Allen College, the graduate will:

• Demonstrate advanced educator competencies to enact increasingly complex faculty and leadership roles.
• Facilitate curriculum design, development, and evaluation of program and learner outcomes using evidence-based strategies.
• Advance the scholarship of education in a variety of health science and nursing professions.
• Evaluate, synthesize, utilize and disseminate the scholarship related to discovery, integration, application, and teaching to further knowledge and competencies of the health science and nursing education professions.
• Demonstrate organizational and systems leadership to advance quality improvement and systems change.
• Apply analytical methods and research to develop best practices and practice guidelines.
• Assume leadership roles in interprofessional collaboration to improve the health outcomes of individuals, families, and populations through the educational preparation and graduation of health science and nursing professionals.

The terminal project for the EdD program is an original scholar-practitioner research dissertation. Students work to identify a problem or issue that affects their local situation or setting, complete a review of applicable literature, and choose an appropriate research design to address the problem. The dissertation committee includes a chair and committee member, and an external reviewer provides input at specific points during the development of the dissertation.

Examples of work from graduates of the EdD program include:

• Steffens, C. L. (2018). Inventory and analysis of the online teaching self-efficacy beliefs of nurse educators [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Allen College.
• Kreger, M. A. (2018). Down the rabbit hole:  A grounded theory of health professionals' transitioning from practice to academia [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Allen College.
• Sacino Murphy, L. (2020). Relationship between grit and academic success in undergraduate and graduate nursing students [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Allen College.
• Preston, L. (2021). Nursing faculty caring attributes [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Allen College.