Second generation professional doctorates in nursing

This paper traces the increase in number and diversity of professional doctorates over the last two decades and discusses the evolution from first to second generation doctorates as a response to the rise of the knowledge economy and new understandings of knowledge-production. Distinctions between first and second generation doctorates are interpreted in the light of Gibbons et al. [Gibbons, M., Limoges, C., Nowotny, H., Schwartzman, S., Scott, P., Trow, M., 1994. The New Production of Knowledge: The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies. Sage, London] taxonomy of knowledge-production, and it is argued that second generation doctorates, based on Mode 2 knowledge-production, are not only relevant to the economy but also have the potential to transform practice. However, as this paper highlights, this reconceptualisation of the professional doctorate presents particular challenges to academia and the discipline of nursing, which centre upon the threats posed to the power and authority of the University by the radical nature of Mode 2 knowledge generation and application in the workplace. Implications of these threats are discussed in relation to the current debate about the rigour of professional doctorates and the call by some for a return to the traditional doctorate or PhD. We conclude that the discipline of nursing has much to gain from embracing, rather than retreating from, the challenges posed by second generation professional doctorates, and that these offer an alternative but no less academically sound education in preparing nurses to pay a full and active role at the theory–practice interface.