Ph.D. in Nursing from Theory to Reality

Higher education programs need quantitative and qualitative evaluation to improve quality and dynamism. The sensitivity and importance of the role of Ph.D. nursing graduates led the researcher to conduct the present review to examine and identify the problems to achieve the highest goals of nursing from theory to reality. In this review study, various internal and external databases, including Elsevier, pub med, Scopus, SID, magiran, medlib, were used to access internal resources. Published articles were searched in both Persian and English without considering the time and language limitations, and the data were analyzed using meta-analysis. In the initial search with the keywords of nursing doctorate, postgraduate nursing education, higher education in nursing, and their English equivalent, a total of 435 studies were found. The findings were discussed in terms of curriculum-related factors, faculty, students, and faculty policies. Nursing education in Iran needs to be reviewed and reformed based on the current needs of society. Prerequisite for achieving this goal is basic pathology of the course, the examination of gaps and needs in the health system, attention to clinical issues and problems of the health care system, quantitative and qualitative evaluation of different levels of nursing education, and in a higher position, a doctoral degree in nursing has a professional reputation as a nurse.