Curriculum
The program consists of 58 credits (17 courses).
Course Descriptions
NURS 500: Confronting Issues in Contemporary Health Care Environments
Confronting Issues in Contemporary Health Care Environments examines Health care policy and policies 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 masters 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 perspectives and depths in an effort to more broadly and more profoundly address the moral difficulties that the advanced practice practitioner in an interdisciplinary environment is likely to encounter.
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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. Students develop an understanding of relationships between patient care and information and data issues involved in clinical practice in addition to examining informatics issues within complex healthcare systems.
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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 searches 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 548: Advanced Pathophysiology
Building on a foundation of normal physiology, students are exposed to the major disturbances of normal function and the basic mechanisms involved in disease of the major organ systems. The course includes discussion of the general aspects of the common human pathophysiological conditions and syndromes.
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NURS 549: Advanced Pharmacology
This course is designed to build on prior pharmacologic study of actions and effects of drugs on the human system across the life span. Students will study pharmacologic mechanisms of action, effects on organ systems, routes of administration, pharmacokinetics, therapeutic uses, considerations related to age and physiologic state, adverse reactions, contraindications, and drop interactions.
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NURS 550: Advanced Physical Assessment & Diagnostic Reasoning
This course is designed to introduce the experienced clinical nurse to advanced clinical history taking and physical assessment for adult and pediatric patients. Course content focuses on concepts, theory and practice obtaining comprehensive health histories for patients of all ages and states of health. The Residency Week at the beginning of the practicum courses allows students to finish the Advanced Physical Assessment Course on Campus. Students take the final Advance Physical Assessment examination on campus. There is supervised lab time for instruction and practice prior to students re-demonstrating a graded Pass/Fail head to toe physical examination. In addition, students utilize the newly built state of the art Standardized Patient Lab to participate in a non-graded Standardized Patient Experience. This digitally taped experience allows students retrieve the encounter for self-review and for review with faculty while on campus.
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NURS 664: Professional Seminar for Nurse Practitioners
This required course is the application and integration of the role and competencies of the nurse practitioner. The roles of the nurse practitioner 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 of interdisciplinary collaborative practice.
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NURS 678 Health, Wellness, and Primary Care for WHNP I
This course will present primary care screening, prevention and maintenance of common primary care conditions. Management of these acute and chronic health care conditions will also be discussed in order to familiarize the women's health care nurse practitioner with appropriate treatment modalities.
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NURS 679: Health, Wellness, and Primary Care for WHNP II
This course follows NURS 678 Health, Wellness, and Primary Care of Women I which introduces the student to the concepts of primary care and prevention. Students continue to study primary care disorders across the lifespan, concentrating on risk factors, signs & symptoms, assessment, and management and/or referral.
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NURS 682: Pharmacology for Women’s Health Care Nurse Practitioners
This course is designed to prepare the Woman’s Care Nurse Practitioner student for the safe managing and prescribing of therapeutic agents utilized in primary care settings for OB and GYN care. Students will build on prior pharmacologic study of actions and effects of medications on the human system across the life span. Students will study pharmacologic mechanisms of action, effects on organ systems, routes of administration, pharmacokinetics, therapeutic uses, considerations related to physiologic state, adverse reactions, contraindications, drug interactions, and monitoring parameters. Content will be presented via live on-line lecture, notes provided by instructor, weekly case studies, and weekly self-assessment quizzes. Assigned readings will be completed by students prior to live class discussions and students should come to class prepared to ask any questions regarding the case studies. Course grades will be determined by discussion board participation (case studies), a comprehensive therapeutic management paper with a brief power point presentation, a mid-term exam, and a final exam.
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NURS 690: Mgmt and Care of the GYN Needs of Women: Common GYN Needs
This course focuses on theoretical knowledge and psychomotor skills related to caring for the common, routine gynecological needs of women throughout the lifecycle. It is designed to build upon the offerings provided in the initial, on-campus portion of the curriculum and it is a prerequisite to N612 GYN II in which the focus shifts from the simple to the more complex concepts of gynecologic health care needs.
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NURS 691: Mgmt and Care of the GYN Needs of Women: Complex GYN Needs
This course focuses on theoretical knowledge related to the more complex gynecological needs of women throughout the lifecycle. The intricacies of both benign and malignant disorders of the female genital tract will be considered as they relate to the role of the nurse practitioner.
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NURS 692: Mgmt and Care of the OB Needs of Women: Low risk
Together with the lectures and hands-on workshops presented during the residential portion of the program, this course will help prepare the foundation on which the rest of your obstetrical knowledge is built. Designed in a step-wise fashion from the preconception period to routine prenatal care and preparation for childbirth, this course will give you the basic knowledge needed to get started in the clinical area while providing a comprehensive approach.
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NURS 693: Mgmt and Care of the OB Needs of Women: High Risk Obstetrics
Together with the lectures and hands-on workshops presented during the residential portion of the program, this course will cover didactic material related to the more complex complications of pregnancy. Designed to continue in a step-wise fashion from N514 OB I, this course will present material related to the post-partum period before moving into the high-risk aspects of obstetrical care.
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RSCH 519: Introduction 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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RSCH 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 searches 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. When feasible, concepts and problems are addressed by students in interdisciplinary teams. Through evaluation of published research in an interdisciplinary context, the skills of evidence-based practice are developed.
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