Disparities in health care, an aging baby boomer population, and the projected retirement of more than half the current nursing workforce between 2011 and 2020 signal a serious temperature spike in an already hot topic.

Now South Florida’s first collegiate nursing program is prescribing what it thinks could help cure—or at least cool—this feverish dilemma. The University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies’ new doctorate in nursing program (DNP) is primed to start in January 2009.

“The past decade has seen a growing interest in practice-focused doctoral programs in nursing to complement the research-focused Ph.D.,” says School of Nursing and Health Studies Dean Nilda Peragallo.

President Donna E. Shalala expects the program to turn out expert nurse practitioners who can design, administer, and evaluate practice interventions and health care systems “to facilitate better patient care and improve patient outcomes.”

It also should add to the pool of clinical experts qualified to teach the increasing numbers of students who will be needed to keep up with staffing demands. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a national shortfall of one million nurses by 2010.

DNP graduates will be “capable of implementing the science developed by Ph.D.-prepared nurses and teaching safe, clinically current practice to the next generation of nursing students,” Peragallo explains.

And it looks as if that generation is already waiting. A serious faculty shortage led U.S. nursing schools to reject more than 40,000 qualified applicants during 2007. Almost 3,000 might have assumed clinical faculty roles, states a 2007-08 American Association of Colleges of Nursing report.

JoAnn Trybulski, associate dean at the School of Nursing and Health Studies, oversees the DNP program, which will offer three tracks—clinical, administration, and education—and operate on a three-semester, executive-format curriculum. Clinical partners include University of Miami Hospital, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, and Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Students also will take courses from faculty at the Schools of Business Administration and Education. Notes Trybulski: “Partnering with other schools at the University of Miami will provide our DNP graduates with a broad base of knowledge and a competitive edge.”