PhD in Nursing program guide

How to read this program

Read this nursing map as a progression from professional judgment and evidence toward the named role, certificate, or doctoral outcome. The catalog exposes the course spine; the registered classroom supplies the current patient-safe instructions, activity identities, and rubrics.

Run coursework, research formation, residencies, approvals, and the culminating sequence as parallel clocks. A strong seminar submission does not move an approval gate; a cleared gate does not replace the scholarly work. Record both on one dated plan.

The classes, section by section

The headings below preserve Walden's published requirement groups, tracks, specializations, and modalities. Repeated codes remain visible where the catalog repeats them, while every code resolves to one canonical class page. This is a navigational transcription, not a personal degree audit or promised enrollment sequence.

Core Curriculum › Foundation Course (1 credits)

Core Curriculum › Core Courses (45 credits or 20 credits) › BSN-PhD entry students take 45 credits of core courses. See each focus area for MSN level core course information.

Core Curriculum › Core Courses (45 credits or 20 credits) › Master's-PhD and DNP Bridge entry students take 20 credits of core courses.

Core Curriculum › Research Courses (20 credits) › Foundation Research Courses (15 credits)

Core Curriculum › Research Courses (20 credits) › Advanced Research Course (5 credits)

Core Curriculum › Doctoral Seminar (5 credits)

Completion of the Doctoral Capstone

Completion Program › Minimum Completion Requirements › Core Courses (5 credits)

Completion Program › Minimum Completion Requirements › Completion of the Dissertation (minimum 20 credits)

Healthcare Administration › BSN-PhD Entry › BSN-PhD Entry Core Courses (45 credits)

Healthcare Administration › BSN-PhD Entry › BSN-PhD Entry Focus Area Courses (15 credits)

Healthcare Administration › Master's-PhD Entry › Master's-PhD Entry Focus Area Courses (15 credits)

Interdisciplinary Health Focus › BSN-PhD Entry › BSN-PhD Entry Core Courses (45 credits)

Interdisciplinary Health Focus › BSN-PhD Entry › BSN-PhD Entry Focus Area Courses (15 credits) › Area 1

Interdisciplinary Health Focus › BSN-PhD Entry › BSN-PhD Entry Focus Area Courses (15 credits) › Area 2

Interdisciplinary Health Focus › BSN-PhD Entry › BSN-PhD Entry Focus Area Courses (15 credits) › Area 3

Interdisciplinary Health Focus › Master's-PhD Entry › Master's-PhD Entry Focus Area Courses (15 credits) › Area 1

Interdisciplinary Health Focus › Master's-PhD Entry › Master's-PhD Entry Focus Area Courses (15 credits) › Area 2

Interdisciplinary Health Focus › Master's-PhD Entry › Master's-PhD Entry Focus Area Courses (15 credits) › Area 3

Leadership › BSN-PhD Entry › BSN-PhD Entry Core Courses (45 credits)

Leadership › BSN-PhD Entry › BSN-PhD Entry Focus Area Courses (15 credits)

Leadership › Master's-PhD Entry › Master's-PhD Entry Focus Area Courses (15 credits)

Nursing Education › BSN-PhD Entry › BSN-PhD Entry Core Courses (45 credits)

Nursing Education › BSN-PhD Entry › BSN-PhD Entry Focus Area Courses (15 credits)

Nursing Education › Master's-PhD Entry › Master's-PhD Entry Focus Area Courses (15 credits)

Population Health › BSN-PhD Entry › BSN-PhD Entry Core Courses (45 credits)

Population Health › BSN-PhD Entry › BSN-PhD Entry Focus Area Courses (15 credits)

Population Health › Master's-PhD Entry › Master's-PhD Entry Focus Area Courses (15 credits)

Course-Based Weeks and Tempo assessments

Course-Based classes use the fixed quarter calendar and the current syllabus assigns work inside each Week. The linked Week 1 through Week 11 pages are positions, never invented assignment titles. Tempo Learning is different: the registered competency inventory and its rubric determine how many Work Products, Performance Tasks, Short Answer Assessments, or Selected Response Assessments appear. For that reason each Tempo course has one live-inventory manual instead of a fabricated sequence.

Plan the work as dependencies

Build a dated course ledger with the code, modality, current Week or competency, exact activity, rubric version, points or performance designation, dependencies, due or target date, evidence status, feedback, and next action. Shared courses should have one evidence and feedback record even when they appear in several tracks. Keep clinical, research, residency, and approval gates on separate lanes so writing progress never masquerades as institutional clearance.

Run the enrollment and modality checkpoint

Before using any row as a personal plan, compare it with the student's degree audit, governing catalog, admission or entry track, declared specialization, transfer evaluation, and registered modality. Confirm whether a repeated code is a shared requirement, an alternative, an elective, a concentration choice, a bridge condition, or a Tempo version. Record prerequisite and sequence rules from the live advising and registration surfaces rather than deriving them from table order. If the degree audit and this public transcription disagree, stop and resolve the difference with Walden before scheduling work. That checkpoint prevents the costly mistake of completing a valid class that does not satisfy the student's current requirement.

Carry learning across class handoffs

Close each class with a reusable learning record: the strongest instructor feedback, concepts that remain uncertain, research methods practiced, source-search terms that worked, calculation or decision templates learned, professional examples the student may responsibly revisit, and any field, research, residency, or approval dependency still open. Preserve ideas and lessons, not previously submitted prose. At the next class, compare its live rubric with that record and identify what must deepen, change audience, use new evidence, or be performed under a different professional boundary. This handoff turns a catalog list into an actual learning progression and keeps recurring feedback from becoming a recurring grade problem.

Responsible tutoring boundary

Clinical, practicum, field, residency, simulation, and project activity remains student-performed and institution-supervised. Tutoring can teach concepts, plan work, and review de-identified student-created material; it cannot replace encounters, hours, attestations, approvals, or identity.

Tutoring supports understanding, practice, planning, research method, diagnostic questions, parallel examples, and feedback on student-authored work. The student makes the decisions, performs identity-controlled activity, verifies facts, protects confidential information, authors and personalizes the response, and completes every final submission.

Source control

The program name, curriculum headings, course codes, titles, and modality labels come from Walden's active academic catalog page for this program, reached through the official nursing topic directory and checked July 30, 2026. Listings and nested concentrations explicitly marked not currently accepting new students are excluded. The student's governing catalog and degree audit supersede this public map.

Program questions