The new SDSU three-year doctorate degree programs were established to comply with legislation to address workforce shortages in health care.
SDSU will be the only campus of California’s 23 state universities to have stand-alone doctorate programs for both nurses and physical therapists.
Nurses who graduate from the three- year program will be able to work as a nurse practitioner and teach at universities.
The Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) estimates there is a shortage of up to 59,000 registered nurses in California.
The BRN said one critical issue to the shortage is a lack of nursing faculty. Without enough nursing professors, schools are unable to add more undergraduate nursing programs.
It’s a similar situation with physical therapists.
Because of an aging population, the Bureau of labor statistics expects the demand for physical therapists to grow by 30 percent over the next decade.
But SDSU does not currently have a physical-therapy undergraduate degree program.
The two new doctorate programs are to begin in fall of 2012.
