Master of Science Nursing (MSN)

This introductory course addresses the role of the nurse educator serving in a variety of clinical and cademic settings. It emphasizes teaching principles in nursing education that consider theoretical and practical techniques used to educate learners, nursing staff and other health care professionals, and lients. The course supports the learner's development as an educator in areas of communication, ntegration of the science and humanities, and methods for planning and evaluation in culturally and linically diverse learning environments. A focus for the course includes translating scholarship to practice in nursing education.

This introductory course addresses the role of the APRN across diverse setting. It emphasizes the APRN professional role and scope of practice. The course supports the learner’s development as an APRN in the areas of communication, integration of science and humanities, clinical practice management including technology and information literacy, and methods for clinical practice in adult primary care. A focus for the course includes translating scholarship to practice in the APRN role.

This course provides the learner with the historical, philosophical, and theoretical foundations for dvanced nursing practice. The focus of the course is to examine the relationship between nursing heories, the development of nursing science, and contemporary nursing knowledge which guide nursing practice and research.

This course builds on the learner’s current knowledge of pathophysiology. The course provides the learner with advanced knowledge of pathophysiological processes in the APRN for patients across the adult lifespan in the primary care setting.

This course provides the student with the knowledge and understanding of various components associated with nursing research including assessment, evaluation, and implementation. Emphasis is placed on preparing learners to access, appraise, and utilize the best available evidence to guide them in advancing the practice of nursing. There is a focus is on transferring the knowledge about research applying it in the healthcare environment.

This course builds on the learner’s current knowledge of pharmacology. The course provides the learner with advanced knowledge of pharmacologic and non-pharmacological processes in the APRN role. This class will focus on medication management for adults in primary care settings for an APRN with prescriptive authority.

This course addresses social justice, law, ethics, and policy within healthcare. Learners will conduct an in-depth analysis of the social determinants of health, regulatory and reform issues within the health care system, and ethical considerations for population health. The course is designed to provide learners with essential skills for promoting social justice and human dignity while advocating for policies that improve equity and health outcomes for all people.

Organizational Leadership focuses on critical examination of styles, strategies, and competencies of the masters prepared nurse for leadership in professional practice and in the profession (as a collaborator and role model). It emphasizes leadership skills for strategic planning, enhancing team performance, interdisciplinary collaboration, and for creating a culture of quality performance.

This course builds on the learner’s current knowledge of health assessment. The course provides the learner with knowledge about advanced health assessment techniques to introduce diagnostic reasoning. The course will review basic anatomy of full body systems, address evidence-based, holistic assessment of individuals aged 14 years and older, as well as provide strategies for incorporating social determinants of health into evidence-based assessment and health promotion. 45 hours of simulated clinical experience focused on expanding knowledge of full body assessment and diagnostic reasoning as an APRN in the adult primary care practice setting are also included in this course

This course will explore goal setting for nurse practitioner students for their clinical practicum rotations. Goals are used to focus on different areas of clinical placement and age span from adolescent to end of life. Pertaining to professional path of the Nurse Practitioner, these include goals pertaining to patient relationships, their health and well-being, their medications, their health insurance and payment planning, diagnosing/care planning/implementation of data driven outcomes. You will need to stop thinking like a nurse per se and think like a Primary Care Provider. You will need to change your paradigm from the nursing process to the Medical Model. You will learn about managing patient care teams and their health outcomes and the consequences of poor health outcomes. This course teaches you to develop SMART goals using measurable outcome statements to help you integrate your learning journey into your clinical practicum. This course promotes your learning self-efficacy, professional and educational development, to help you build personal infrastructure for lifelong learning. The course will also assist you explore various learning modalities and will incorporate learning checkpoints such as assignments in resume writing, reflective journal writing to determine how you are meeting your SMART goals in practice, and professional document submissions. You will also develop a plan for your transition to clinical practicum placements practice. You will look at the different rules and regulations of your practicing state board of nursing, and certification guidelines. This course includes valuable tools and smart practices that can help you out with your own goals, no matter what they are or what they involve.

This first primary care course builds on the learner’s prior knowledge and coursework, providing the learner with advanced knowledge of pathophysiological processes, health assessment, data collection, analysis, and pharmacotherapeutics, for adolescent, young adults in the primary care setting. Emphasis is placed on the APRN role in incorporating evidence and clinical guidelines into risk reduction, disease prevention, and management of illness for selected acute and chronic disease processes.

This second primary care course builds on the learner’s prior knowledge and coursework, providing the learner with advanced knowledge of pathophysiological processes, health assessment, data collection, analysis, and pharmacotherapeutics, for adults in the primary care setting. Emphasis is placed on the APRN role in incorporating evidence and clinical guidelines into risk reduction, disease prevention, and the diagnosis of and management of acute and chronic conditions.

This third primary care course builds on the learner’s prior knowledge and coursework, providing the learner with advanced knowledge of pathophysiological processes, health assessment, data collection, analysis, and pharmacotherapeutics, for older adults in the primary care setting. Emphasis is placed on the APRN role in promoting healthy aging while also incorporating evidence and clinical guidelines into risk reduction, disease prevention, diagnosis and management of acute and chronic conditions.

This second clinical course is paired with the didactic course which provides the opportunity to build on skills and knowledge acquired in health assessment, pharmacology, and pathophysiology. Students will continue to expand their knowledge in health promotion, illness prevention, diagnosis and management of acute and chronic conditions in primary care settings, preparing for an Adult Gerontology Nurse Practitioner role.

This third clinical course is paired with the didactic course which provides the opportunity to build on skills and knowledge acquired in health assessment, pharmacology, and pathophysiology. Students will continue to expand their knowledge in health promotion, illness prevention, diagnosis and management of acute and chronic conditions in primary care settings, preparing for an Adult Gerontology Nurse Practitioner role.

This course prepares learners to teach with and about healthcare informatics principles, competencies, tools, and technologies essential to healthcare delivery, teaching and learning, administrative, and research and scholarly activities. Learners explore informatics support of healthcare practice and quality, including the impacts of standards, system design, and user experience from multiple perspectives. This course introduces key concepts related to ethical and social impacts of informatics and the importance of technology integration and use of data and information for multi-faceted decision-making. Exploration of current and emerging technologies used for in-person, virtual, and connected models of health and education provides a foundation for improving health and teaching-learning outcomes in the digital world.

This advanced clinical practicum provides the opportunity to incorporate advanced knowledge and skills to expand expertise in clinical practice. Learners develop proficiency in assessment, planning, and intervention based on the needs of the adult patient population. Emphasis is on interdisciplinary collaboration, safety, and quality care in the primary care setting. In person intensives will be required for scheduled Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), as well as face-to-face practicum site faculty evaluations.

This course considers strategies for developing and analyzing curricula, ranging in scope from individual teaching sessions to complete programs of study. Developing a curriculum that aligns with stakeholder needs and interests, professional standards and guidelines, and learner characteristics will be emphasized. Linking content and learning activities to learning outcomes will be addressed.

This course provides the learner with knowledge and skills to transition into the independent APRN role. This course offers a framework for self-care, credentialing, licensing, interviewing and creating a professional portfolio for employment.

This course examines teaching and learning theories, styles, and methods. Students will appraise best practice approaches to teaching and learning in various settings and environments to promote the development of advanced knowledge, judgment, skills, and ethics. Course works will emphasis the development and integration of innovative teaching methods to use in the classroom and with clinical instruction. Building upon knowledge, skills and attitudes acquired in previous course work, students will formulate teaching and learning strategies for use in preparing a variety of educational materials and programs for nurses and other health professionals.

This course examines evidenced-based assessment and evaluation in nursing education. Students will explore a variety of strategies to assess and evaluate learning in the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains and will learn to develop and use tests and performance evaluation strategies for use in various educational settings. Building upon previous course work, students will formulate assessment and evaluation strategies for an educational practicum project. Course work emphasizes the development of new knowledge and skills that align learning and program evaluation with professional standards and guidelines, program and course outcomes, and learner characteristics.

This course builds on the student’s current knowledge of pathophysiology, pharmacology, and health assessment. The course also provides the student with advanced knowledge of pathophysiological processes, health assessment data collection and analysis, and pharmacotherapeutics, for patients and populations diagnosed with complex health problems. Emphasis is placed on the Advanced Practice Nurse’s role in incorporating evidence and clinical guidelines into risk reduction, disease prevention, and management of illness and disease.

This advanced clinical practicum provides the opportunity to incorporate advanced knowledge and skills to expand expertise in clinical practice. Students develop proficiency in assessment, planning, and intervention based on the needs of a patient population. Particular emphasis is on interdisciplinary collaboration, safety, and quality care.

This teaching practicum provides students opportunities to demonstrate nurse educator competencies necessary to facilitate student learning. This teaching practicum builds on previous coursework by providing nurse educator students opportunities to practice and integrate learning theories, evidence-based teaching, technology, innovative teaching strategies and evaluation methods in an academic or healthcare setting. Students will reflect and evaluate nurse educator competencies as they apply to knowledge, skill, and attitudes necessary to be effective and successful in the nurse educator role.