Curriculum
This is a 46-credit graduate program. It is designed for part-time attendance by working nurses. This program may be completed in 7 quarters or 9 quarters. Click here to view the MSN in Nursing Education & Faculty Role Planned Program of Study.
Course Descriptions
NURS 500— Confronting Issues in Contemporary Health Care Environments
Confronting Issues in Contemporary Health Care Environments examines Health care policy and politics in terms of contemporary issues related to advanced practice nursing, health care access, quality, and cost. The focus of this course is the critical analysis of health policy and legal issues.
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NURS 502 — Advanced Ethical Decision Making in Health Care
This is a course for master’s students who have already had some experience in ethical decision making, both academically in the classroom and in practice. This course will take an interdisciplinary focus, as ethical decision making at this level rarely ever is the decision of a single discipline. A variety of ethical topics will be analyzed from various perspective and depths in an effort to more broadly and more profoundly address the moral difficulties the advance practice practitioner in an interdisciplinary environment is likely to encounter.
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NURS 519 — Intro to Biostatistics
This is an introductory course which focuses on the fundamentals of biostatistics for health sciences graduate students. Excel-based and SPSS assignments will be used to supplement the content.
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NURS 523 — Methods for Health Research
The course is designed to provide professional graduate students with the skills necessary to evaluate the relationship between practice and published research. The course content includes an overview of research concepts, ethics in research, literature searching and reviews, quantitative and qualitative research methods and designs, and data collection, analysis, and interpretation techniques. An interdisciplinary team of faculty teaches the course using a problem solving approach.
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NURS 526 — Information, Innovation and Technology in Advanced Nursing Practice
This course is designed to provide an in-depth introduction to information systems and technologies that support practice and improve patient care and outcomes. Development of information management and technology skills (which meet the ANA Informatics Competencies) will be incorporated through out the course. Content is directed toward assisting the student in understand the relationships between patient care and complex information and data issues involved in clinical practice. Students will learn to use tools and strategies for building and managing information system components that require knowledge of informatics issues, standards, and relevant theories as well as evidence-based quality improvement strategies. This course also examines informatics issues within complex healthcare systems including organizational, professional, policy, ethical, social, cultural, economic, and legal factors.
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NURS 527 — Evidenced Based Approaches to Practice
This course focuses on using research to guide evidence-based practice. Communication, collaboration, and decision making skills from a multidisciplinary approach essential to collect, evaluate, and apply research to practice will be emphasized. During this course the student will learn to (1) conduct efficient, thorough searching of the research literature; (2) evaluate the quality of a body of research through an appraisal of design, methodology, and data analysis; (3) summarize the findings from an overall body of research; and (4) apply research evidence to issues of current nursing practice.
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NURS 669 — Professional Seminar for Advanced Nursing Practice
This required course is the application and integration of the role and competencies of the MSN prepared Nurse with advanced nursing knowledge who will seek employment in a diversity of advanced practice roles. The roles of the MSN graduate as clinician, educator, researcher, expert, and leader are presented and explored. Interpretation and application of professional issues, practice issues, legislative issues, certification issues, insurance issues, legal issues, and ethical conflict resolution in advanced nursing practice are explored, and integrated into a model for interdisciplinary collaborative practice. Emphasis will be on preparing the graduating MSN prepared nurse for practice and of assuming new professional advanced practice roles. Last, all MSN graduates must establish competency in oral and written communication skills as a graduation outcome.
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NURS 597 — Clinical and Didactic Teaching Methods in Nursing Education
The purpose of this course it to prepare the prospective nurse faculty with the foundational principles and skills necessary for didactic teaching in the classroom and for supervision in clinical settings. Educational theories and instructional methods will be explored to enhance learning among traditional and non-traditional student populations in differing types of programs within the higher education environment.
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NURS 598 — Teaching Critical Thinking and Clinical Decision-Making in Nursing
This course is designed to prepare the prospective nurse faculty with theoretical principles, process, and instructional skills to promote critical thinking that result in appropriate clinical decision-making when interacting with student nurses in the classroom and clinical settings. Techniques for the facilitation of learning will be emphasized.
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NURS 599 — Curriculum Design, Measurement, and Evaluation in Nursing Education
This course offers the student practical applications in the design and assessment of individual courses within the design of programmatic nursing curricula including development of learning objectives and teaching strategies to achieve programmatic learning outcomes, systematic test construction using multiple-choice format and alternative formats, and basic test statistics.
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NURS 612 — The Nursing Academic in the Changing Higher Education Environment
This course will address the basic concepts of higher education environments. The concepts of culture and organizational design, productivity, academic economics, academic freedom, networking & collaboration, rights and responsibilities, policy and protocols, continuing education, and the tenure process will be explored.
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NURS 613 — The Role and Responsibilities of the Nursing Professor
Academic policies, protocols, and legal aspects of education will be explored. Campus relationships, prospective & current student issues as well as laws affecting students will be examined. Situational events that occur in the classroom and clinical settings will be highlighted for students to research, discuss and develop a format for applying case law to student faculty issues.
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NURS 614 — Technologies for Nursing Education and Practice
The purpose of this course it to expand on technology skills that support the nurse educator in the virtual learning environment. This course prepares the student educator with the skills to utilize available technology for the development of on-line course work for the academic setting and program development for staff and patient education and the preparation community outreach programs.
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NURS 626 — Masters Nursing Education Practicum I
Each student will be assigned an expert nursing educator for each setting who meets specified criteria for the mentoring role. Clinical settings may vary according to the student's interests, goals, and career objectives. Emphasis is placed on demonstration of mastery of theoretical course work through a capstone project.
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NURS 627 — Masters Nursing Education Practicum II
This course focuses on the teaching role of the contemporary nurse educator in the higher education classroom setting. Each student will be assigned an expert nursing educator for each practicum site who meets specified criteria for the mentoring role. Emphasis is placed on demonstration of mastery of theoretical course work through a capstone project. Student will complete 90 hours per each term in this practicum. A teaching portfolio will be required at the end of the term containing, but not limited to, the documentation of practicum criteria, student learning, objectives, teaching activities with lesson plans, and formative and summative mentor evaluations.
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