Online MSN Nursing Courses

This graduate level writing course will help the student refine writing skills from the fundamentals of writing through argumentation. Through a series of small writing assignments, this course will prepare the student for scholarly writing and research.

This course focuses on theoretical foundations and conceptual principles of leadership, professional collaboration, communications, and the skills necessary to practice leadership competently in healthcare environments, recognizing that organizational and systems leadership are critical to the promotion of high quality and safe patient care. Key concepts including ethical and critical decision making, motivation and individual behavior, interpersonal and group behavior, job satisfaction, work stress and culture, and influences of micro-, meso-, and macro-organizational behaviors are explored. The course is designed to enhance leadership self-awareness and to encourage students to fashion personal perspectives on how to lead professionally. Analyzing trends and issues in the current health care system that have implications for exercising leadership will help students determine the way they can make a difference.

This graduate level course addresses health risks and trends in communities and in families. High-risk populations, aggregates, and communities comprise the focus for investigation. Developmental, psychodynamic, social-political, and cultural theories and concepts are synthesized and applied to analysis of health behaviors in community settings and in families across the life cycle. Risk appraisal methods and evidence-based strategies to identify and prevent health risks in individuals, families, and communities are examined. This course highlights local, state, and federal resources for families, particularly those individuals in medically underserved areas.

This course provides an introduction to the principles of fiscal management in the health care environment, covering financial and managerial accounting, cost analysis, budgeting, planning and control. The object of this course is to prepare nursing management to understand the financial management of healthcare organizations.

The focus of this graduate course is to provide an exploration and synthesis of advanced key concepts in human pathophysiology, physical assessment, and pharmacotherapy with consideration of varied populations, health-promotion practices, and evidenced-based practice. Students synthesize knowledge and practice from cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of learning in order to facilitate learning and carry out a clinical direct patient care project (includes 10 direct practice hours.).

This course introduces economic concepts and current policy issues facing the United States health care system. Issues of cost, quality, access, disparities, and finance will be examined from the view of payers, providers, and regulators, and the interactions of these stakeholders both within the United States and in comparison with global markets. Topics will include various health care markets, the role of government in financing of health care, the structure and functions of public and private health insurance, economic components of the delivery system, and understanding the challenges of health care reform.

This course examines the ethical, moral, and legal accountability and professional responsibility for nurse leaders, nurse educators and advanced practice nurses (APN). Ethical leadership and the roles of the leaders, nurse educators and APN as it relates to social justice, technology and business, research, and advanced practice specialty areas will be explored. The regulatory and legal framework for leaders, nurse educators, and APNs scope of practice will be addressed. Ethical reasoning, decision making, and action will be applied.

This course focuses on quality, informatics, and the role of statistics in quality improvement. Concepts, models, and strategies of quality improvement and informatics are examined. Students will apply principles of quality and regulatory management with an emphasis on defining, measuring, and evaluating outcomes within and across organizational systems. The student will apply informatics and statistical concepts to identify, gather, process, and manage information/data. At the end of the course, the student will be able to create and implement innovative solutions to improve patient care and safety.

Students will be prepared to apply teaching and learning principles with patients and/or students in a variety of settings. Key aspects of learning development, the process of learning, and teaching methodologies are studied. Students will explore the impact of institutional, social, and economic forces as well as the role of diversity and ethical principles of learning to plan and develop innovative student-centered learning activities. The nurse educator will demonstrate competency with technology in education. This course will be relevant to those students who would like to be nurse educators in settings such as healthcare settings, community settings and educational institutions.

In this course, students have the opportunity to explore ways of leading in conceptualizing, designing, and implementing innovative evaluation practices. We will explore suitable performance assessments in educational and organizational settings (i.e., instructor-student; practitioner-client; program providers-stakeholders). In addition to validity, reliability, and applicability of evaluation strategies and tools, students will be encouraged to focus on an array of groundbreaking methods (i.e., collaborative evaluation, action research, appreciative inquiry, etc.) that can broaden assessment practices in their chosen fields.

This required internship allows the student to synthesize the learning acquired in previous nursing education courses. The course requires 150 hours internship (minimum 75 hours direct care) with a preceptor in an area of nursing practice with other identified health care professionals who are involved in direct patient care.

This is the culmination of the MSN Leadership and Education program focusing on leadership. It is 150 hours of internship experience in a healthcare organization with a master’s Prepared Nurse. The main outcome is to provide a substantial change/contribution to the organization. PREREQUITES: NU 727, NU 743

This course facilitates the clinician’s translation of research into practice through analysis of current quantitative and qualitative literature and clinical experience. The student will examine health outcomes and quality and safety to improve care provided and influence decisions using scholarly based recommendations. The course will introduce the evidence-based practice process and interventions to implement and sustain evidence-based care.