Doctor of Nursing (DN)

Advanced Credit

Advanced credit will not be granted for the Doctor of Nursing.

Flexible Grade Option (CG Grade)

The Faculty of Nursing will not permit the Flexible Grade Option (CG Grade) for any course offered by the Faculty.

Students may choose the CG grade in a course taken extra-to-load.

The use of the CG grade will not affect students' ability for internal awards.

Credit for Undergraduate Courses

Credit will not be given for undergraduate-level courses.

Time Limit

The expected completion time is three years; maximum completion time is six years.

Supervisory Assignments

Doctor of Nursing students will be assigned a Faculty of Nursing member to commit to their supervision following admission to the program. In addition, a workplace or related mentor will be identified by the student and/or faculty supervisor/supervisory committee once the student has entered the DN program. This individual will normally hold a senior position within an organization relevant to the student’s planned work-integrated research project. This individual, a knowledge expert, will be considered an Advisory Member of the student’s supervisory committee, as outlined by the Faculty of Graduate Studies. The Advisory Member will attend committee meetings and examinations but will serve in a non-voting capacity.

Thesis Proposal Requirements

Doctoral students must have their thesis proposals approved by their supervisory committee prior to candidacy and before proceeding to ethical review and implementation of the project.

Students whose research involves human subjects must receive ethics approval from the University of Calgary Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board.

Candidacy

The Doctoral candidacy examination has a written and an oral component.

The student will produce a manuscript that may be submitted for publication. The manuscript will be focused on synthesizing knowledge, applying theory, and/or demonstrating an understanding of methodologies related to the student’s research project. Students are expected to defend their work in a closed oral examination with the examination committee. For complete details of the examination format and other candidacy requirements visit: nursing.ucalgary.ca/current-students/graduate/managing-my-program/examinations.

Thesis Examination

In addition to Faculty of Graduate Studies regulations for Thesis Examinations, the program requires:

Scheduling of the Examination

All members of the Supervisory Committee must have reviewed the student’s draft thesis document before an examination can be scheduled.

Composition of the Committee

The internal examiner must be external to the Faculty of Nursing.

Financial assistance may be available to qualified students in line with the University’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity initiatives. For information on awards, see the Awards and Financial Assistance section of this Calendar.