R.N. to M.S. in Nursing - Courses

This course will introduce the student to some of the basic concepts of descriptive and inferential, including frequency distributions, graphs, numerical summaries, probability distributions, confidence intervals, one and two-sample hypothesis tests for means, correlation and regression, chi-square tests, and analysis of variance.

The central goal of this course is to provide students with the foundational knowledge to make informed judgments about the application of statistics in nursing research and its usefulness in meeting the wholistic needs of clients and advancing the profession of nursing.

This course prepares nurses to engage in quality and safety initiatives in healthcare and practice settings.  Students use knowledge from biological sciences, social sciences, physical sciences, and humanities to develop skill in improving the quality and safety in health care delivery, ultimately improving health care outcomes for diverse individuals, groups and communities with consideration given to healthcare disparities.  Students will learn the value of systems thinking with a focus on teamwork and collaboration, quality improvement, safety, healthcare standards, and informatics for improving outcomes in health care settings.  Students will complete 16 hours of clinical practice experience.  A quality improvement project will be identified during this course as the foundation for the capstone project.

This course will introduce the student to comprehensive assessment of individuals within a holistic framework.  Students will utilize the nursing history and physical examination as well as developmental, sexual, mental, cultural, and spiritual assessment.  Basic skills of inspection, palpation, percussion, and auscultation will be learned or reviewed.  Modification of comprehensive assessment for specific age will be explored.  Students will consider their development from a novice to an expert nurse and examine the development of nursing diagnosis and contemporary methods of applying nursing process through managed care.  Several theoretical frameworks will be introduced as the student considers his/her personal philosophy of nursing.  This course will include laboratory activities in addition to the online group work.

This course provides a foundational overview of evidence-based practice and the critical appraisal of best evidence literature. The course is designed to teach evidence-based practice skills that will enable the RN-BS student to conduct evaluations of existing literature related to improving care. Students learn to formulate clinical questions in an answerable format, search for and identify best evidence, and appraise that evidence for rigor and applicability to a practice problem. Basic principles of scientific inquiry, quantitative and qualitative research methods, research ethics, and protection of human subjects are introduced. Students will complete an eight-hour practice experience. The course will culminate with a review of the literature to support a quality improvement initiative as a foundation for the capstone project.

Population Health is an eight-week time-shortened course with 2.5 credits of classroom learning, and 0.5 credits for clinical learning.  Population health includes community and public health nursing and all facets there within.  Community and public health nursing differ from acute-care settings in care and in both philosophy and scope.  In this course, students will focus on the role of the Baccalaureate-prepared nurse in community and public health settings.  Epidemiology and its application to community health will be examined and explored.  There will be opportunity to learn about families in the community/public health settings.  Opportunity is built into the course to enhance knowledge as the student applies the principles learned in class through self-study, community-based RN assessments, and the discovery of community agencies or resources within the community.

This course will prepare nursing students with knowledge and skills to lead and manage care in a variety of healthcare settings.  An exploration of leadership theories, leader influence, team building, emotional intelligence, ethics, and healthy work culture are included.  The student will acquire multiple leadership skills such as decision making, delegation, conflict resolution, advocacy, performance appraisals and managing budgets.  The impact of healthcare policy and politics on health care is explored and discussed.  Students participate in a total of 16 hours of leadership practice experience and develop a plan for leading a practice change project in the practice setting.

This course will introduce the student to caring theory, reflective practice, and whole person nursing practice. Students will learn about nursing history, contemporary issues impacting nursing and health care today, person well-being, lifelong learning, professional values, and communication in professional nursing practice.  Interprofessional collaborative practice is introduced in this course.

The course will focus on evidence-based practice as a framework for advanced nursing practice.  The use of research and evidence-based nursing processes to improve clinical practice and decision making in the health care setting will be explored in depth.  This course will include an emphasis on developing clinical questions, acquiring evidence, appraising evidence and synthesis of findings and measurement of outcomes.

This course focuses on critical analyses of theory and its’ use for advanced nursing practice. Nursing’s scientific body of knowledge is examined through consideration of selected nursing models, theories, and constructs. Selected theories, models, and concepts from social and behavioral sciences, which enhance nursing as a scientific discipline, are also considered. The inter‐relationship between theory, practice and research is examined and various methods for developing scientific knowledge for practice are explored. Application of theoretical frameworks to nursing practice is emphasized as the student’s chosen theoretical base for the identification and development of nurse-led evidence-based changes in a chosen healthcare setting.

Teaching as a scholarly endeavor and the history of nursing education are a backdrop to the study of teaching and learning theories used in nursing education as well as an exploration of nursing curriculum development and current influencing factors in the academic, practice, and patient education settings.  Various theories of learning will be introduced in the context of undergraduate pre-licensure programs, nursing professional development and patient education. Students will have the opportunity to design an educational course/program within a framework including mapping of organizational/program mission and the course, and student learning outcomes.  Exploration of program evaluation will include an introduction to regulations and accreditation standards.

This course explores the creative design of teaching/learning strategies in the context of instruction specific to nursing education within the classroom and clinical environment. Consideration is given to pre-licensure learners, professional nurse development, and individual and population focused patient education.  Learners identify learner objectives and specific teaching/learning strategies and explore classroom and clinical learning using formative and summative evaluation strategies.

In this course, the role of the educator and leader as change agent will be emphasized as it relates to the scope and standards of professional leadership and education practice and within the context of using the best evidence to inform the role of leader and educator and transform practice. This course culminates in the completion of a scholarly Graduate Project Proposal and overview of the project via a scholarly and professional audio-video presentation.

In this course the significance of technology as a part of effective teaching and learning in the virtual learning environment is examined. This course provides nurse educator students with the knowledge and skills for understanding and using a variety of online learning technologies to support the teaching-learning process. The course will discuss principles and application of online learning, use of technology in teaching and learning, and how to integrate computer technologies into the nursing curriculum.

This graduate level course will integrate principles of advanced pathophysiology, holistic health history, physical assessment, clinical experience, and pharmacology as a foundation to support the role of the nurse educator in clinical practice. The focus will be on the development of advanced knowledge of human pathophysiological functions and response to selected disease processes and the integration of this knowledge into evidenced-based nursing practice. The students will expand and refine skills related to integrated health assessment, pathophysiology, and pharmacology essential for advanced nursing practice and nursing education practice.

This course is designed to give the learner an overview of Lean Six Sigma methodology; with an emphasis on healthcare quality applications and initiatives. It is intended to give the learner a basic understanding of Lean Six Sigma principles and tools to prepare them for participation in Quality Initiatives in their organization.  Upon successful completion of the course the learner will earn a Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt certificate.

This course provides an opportunity to apply the theories and principles of teaching nursing students and practicing nurses in group or one-on-one, formal and informal settings.  Aspects of educating nurses, such as planning and implementing experiences and documenting and evaluating performance of individual learners will be practiced.  In addition, students will take responsibility for designing and delivering classes on various nursing topics to nurse learners.  Each student will be mentored by one or more nursing faculty or professional nurse development staff.  Seminar topics include closing the theory-practice gap; evidence-based teaching; confronting difficult situations; giving constructive criticism/evaluation; the tripartite role of the academic nurse educator; and the multiple roles in professional nursing development.

The course will focus on evidence-based practice as a framework for advanced nursing practice.  The use of research and evidence-based nursing processes to improve clinical practice and decision making in the health care setting will be explored in depth.  This course will include an emphasis on developing clinical questions, acquiring evidence, appraising evidence and synthesis of findings and measurement of outcomes.

This course focuses on critical analyses of theory and its’ use for advanced nursing practice. Nursing’s scientific body of knowledge is examined through consideration of selected nursing models, theories, and constructs. Selected theories, models, and concepts from social and behavioral sciences, which enhance nursing as a scientific discipline, are also considered. The inter‐relationship between theory, practice and research is examined and various methods for developing scientific knowledge for practice are explored. Application of theoretical frameworks to nursing practice is emphasized as the student’s chosen theoretical base for the identification and development of nurse-led evidence-based changes in a chosen healthcare setting.

This course provides a focused examination of Strategic Human Resources management.  Human Resources Management is an essential skill for nurses in healthcare leadership positions and focuses on talent acquisition, training and development, coaching, organizational effectiveness, diversity and inclusion, and a healthy work environment.  Additionally, students will examine employment law, ethics and safety.  The course will culminate with a broader examination of ethical and legal dilemmas faced by health care leaders.  The formation of governmental policy is reviewed and the role of leaders in advocating for healthcare and professional needs.

This is an overview course that will provide an in-depth introduction of healthcare accounting and finance. This course is intended to give those who seek to manage health care organizations the accounting and financial management foundation they need to assure that their organizations produce information that will support their responsibility to make necessary and sound decisions. The course will focus on the operations of health care organizations such as not for profit and for profit hospitals, physician groups and other healthcare agencies including how these organizations use accounting and financial systems for decision making. In this course, we will examine the healthcare organization as a management function and the basic principles of accounting followed by financial statement analyses, cost accounting, cost shifting, budgeting, managing accounts receivable, materials management and healthcare economics. We will examine these topics and their use in planning, control, evaluation and “real life” work examples. The course covers all the essential functions in health care accounting and financial operations that would be experienced throughout the healthcare industry, except for the insurance business and those entities which have special and additional requirements for being for-profit. During the course the participants will carefully construct what the accounting and finance department is expected to accomplish. The course objectives are reinforced through the lecture/PowerPoint presentations and supplemental readings, significant group discussion forums, abstracts, homework problem sets, a case study, and a final presentation. 

In this course, the role of the educator and leader as change agent will be emphasized as it relates to the scope and standards of professional leadership and education practice and within the context of using the best evidence to inform the role of leader and educator and transform practice. This course culminates in the completion of a scholarly Graduate Project Proposal and overview of the project via a scholarly and professional audio-video presentation.

This course is designed to prepare nurses for executive administrative and leadership positions in a variety of complex health care settings.  The focus is on how the nurse executives and leaders create and maintain a dynamic healthy work environment through the use of program development, project implementation, fiscal design, informatics, and staff education while examining the art and practices of strategic leadership within an organization.  In addition, this course will provide an overview of teaching methods and learning theories to support effective educational programs for individuals (patient population), communities, and health professionals.

In this course the significance of informatics as a part of effective practice and research in advanced practice nursing is examined as learners explore the use of technologies and information systems to enhance, strengthen and improve quality of care and patient safety. Content focuses on information systems relating to patient outcomes, safety, quality improvement, and clinical decision making.  Consideration is also given to administrative systems supporting nursing leadership planning and decision making, as well as the legal and ethical issues emergent from the use of technology in healthcare. Application to practice is explored through face-to-face interviews with nursing and informatics leaders in the practice setting. 

This course is designed to give the learner an overview of Lean Six Sigma methodology; with an emphasis on healthcare quality applications and initiatives. It is intended to give the learner a basic understanding of Lean Six Sigma principles and tools to prepare them for participation in Quality Initiatives in their organization.  Upon successful completion of the course the learner will earn a Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt certificate.

This course is designed to prepare nurses for executive and leadership positions in a variety of complex health care settings.  The focus is on how the nurse executives and leaders create and maintain a dynamic work environment through the use of exceptional leadership practices, strategic planning, program development and evaluation, fiscal design and implementation, informatics and other resources. Through the use of an integrated internship with an approved leadership mentor, the students will experience first-hand executive leadership.  In addition, the student will complete a project for their mentor that requires the skills of a master’s prepared nurse which highlights their acquired knowledge and skills.  The individualized internship builds on the previous courses and the student’s special interests, prior experience and personal strengths and weakness.  The internship includes on-site hours, conference hours, and completion of a mutually agreed upon project for the mentor.