Date of Award

Summer 8-2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Education

First Advisor

Christopher Cale

Second Advisor

Shannon Groff

Third Advisor

Sunddip Aguilar

Abstract

Higher education enrollments have trended downward over the last several years and fallen further due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The problem addressed in this study was low student enrollment in neurodiagnostic programs in the United States, resulting in an increasing shortage of neurodiagnostic professionals working in the field. The purpose of this descriptive qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of neurodiagnostic program directors and their views on the low enrollments in neurodiagnostic programs in the United States. A descriptive qualitative design was used to understand the perspectives of these program directors. Human capital theory, the theory of planned behavior, and self-determination theory were used as the framework for this study. The research question was designed to help provide an understanding of the perceptions of neurodiagnostic program leadership on low student enrollments in neurodiagnostic programs in the United States. Program directors from nine neurodiagnostic programs were interviewed using semistructured interviews. Open-ended questions addressed enrollment trends, visibility of the neurodiagnostic career path, and neurodiagnostic licensure. Inductive and reflexive thematic analysis were used when coding and analyzing the interview data to identify emerging themes and determine the causes of low enrollments. The results of this study demonstrated a lack of visibility of the field of neurodiagnostics, the lack of clinical sites, and a lack of standardization, impacting low enrollments. Future research could incorporate a larger group of program directors as well as broaden the study to include additional modalities within the field of neurodiagnostics. Implications of these findings may be that hospital administrators review entry-level requirements for new hires, advocate for more clinical sites, and engage in better marketing campaigns to encourage increased visibility of neurodiagnostic programs and higher enrollments.

Comments

Doctoral dissertation presented to the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education

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