A Comparative Study of the New Curriculum of Nursing PhD Education System in Iran and Duke University of America

Introduction: Nursing knowledge and profession will not develop well, if the quality of the doctoral program of nursing is not systematically examined Quality of the  program  needs to reviewing and evaluating  the programs periodically by the Internal and External Quality Assurance Committee. In this regards, this comparative study of educational system of nursing doctorate in Iran and Duke University has been done.  Methods: This descriptive-comparative study was conducted in 2020. The four-stage Bereday model include description, interpretation, proximity and comparison were used to compare the nursing educational system in Iran and Duke University. After collecting data, the data were classified and compared. Results: Although Duke University and Iran curricula have similarities in philosophy, job position, course content, teaching techniques, and student evaluation, there are differences in both curricula, including the use of nursing metaparadigms. In the curriculum of Duke University, all four metaparadigms of nursing have been discussed but in the curriculum of Iran, two metaparadigms have been mentioned. How to admit students and manner of education are the other subjects. Educational techniques and job position are among the similarities between the two educational programs, but the most important differences between them are educational content and way of admitting students. Conclusion: Although the new curriculum of the Doctor of Nursing has tried to pay attention to the clinic in addition to educational programs, but the recent curriculum in Iran, despite all its efforts to train clinical staff, is more educational and requires another curriculum to train clinical staff. However, in the curriculum of Duke University, nursing Ph.D education course separate from doctorate clinical nursing. Therefore, It is suggested to initiate a specialized clinical doctorate course in the coming years and separate it from training course which have different goals.