Master of Science in Nursing: Leadership & Education

Nursing Education (22 credits)

The Nursing Education concentration prepares students to fulfill the Advanced Practice Role of the Nurse Educator for developing, delivering and evaluating curriculum, as well as providing direct care patient education across a variety of healthcare settings. During their program, students will engage in both a direct care practicum and a precepted teaching practicum in a classroom, clinical, skills laboratory or an education department in a patient care setting. Coursework in teaching and learning theory, engaging educational approaches, learning assessment, curriculum development, and contemporary teaching techniques ready students for implementing education in both academic and direct care settings.Completion of the education track also enables students to be eligible to take the National League for Nursing (NLN) Nurse Educator Certification Exam.

Note: If you entered in the nursing education concentration on or prior to June 2017, please refer to this curriculum map.

• Advanced Pathophysiology

  NR548 3 credit hours

  This course examines pathophysiological processes integral to the understanding of human health conditions and disorders across the lifespan. Objective and subjective manifestations of common health problems resulting from environmental, genetic, and stress-related maladaptation are assessed and analyzed. Assessment findings, diagnostic testing, and interventions for specific health problems are discussed. The etiology, epidemiology, and pathophysiology of disorders are reviewed within the context of age, gender, lifestyle and sociocultural determinants. Principles of pathophysiology are applied to recognize clinical signs and symptoms consistent with human health conditions. The impact of health promotion and disease prevention on pathophysiological processes across the lifespan are explored. 

• Advanced Pharmacology

  NR552 3 credit hours

  This course builds on the student’s understanding of fundamental pharmacological principles, including pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, drug metabolism, and dose-response relationships and includes the study of major pharmacological classes related to common disease processes.  The course explores the major pharmacological drug classes and their application to the principles of therapeutic decision-making, including legal and ethical implications.

• Curriculum Design in Nursing

  NR563 3 credit hours

  In this course the student focuses on the relationship between institutional vision, mission, and values on curriculum design, development, and revision within the context of a curriculum that is relevant, evidence-based and unified. The theoretical foundations, essential components, and accreditation standards for curriculum development for a pre-licensure program are examined. The role of outcome competencies is addressed in the development and evaluation of an educational program to meet contemporary healthcare needs. Models of systematic program evaluation or other outcome standards will be analyzed.

  *This course is currently under development and subject to change.

• Advanced Physical Assessment

  NR553 3 credit hours

  This course builds upon basic health assessment and guides the student to obtain a complete and accurate health assessment, including history, physical examination, and commonly used screening tools, as a foundation for advanced nursing practice with clients across the life span. The course emphasizes critical analysis and synthesis of physical exam data, relevant health history data, critical risk appraisal of the physical and mental status, assessment of nutrition, and anticipatory guidance relevant to health promotion and disease prevention. At the conclusion of the course, the student will utilize distance learning technology to demonstrate a comprehensive physical health assessment.

• Innovations in Teaching and Learning

  NR564 3 credit hours

  This seminar prepares the student to apply theoretical concepts related to how adults learn and how teachers teach to prepare students with highly developed critical thinking skills to meet the demands of complex nursing practice in the contemporary healthcare environment. The course includes emphasis on adult learners, the self as the teacher and the teacher and learner characteristics that support successful learning.  Principles of teaching and learning, critical thinking applied to the variety of learning environments including simulation, distance learning and the clinical setting and the use of technology are explored as well as teaching methods in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of learning.

  *This course is currently under development and subject to change.

• Assessment and Evaluation Strategies

  NR565 3 credit hours

  This course focuses on the assessment, measurement, and evaluation of learning outcomes as measures of learner progress and program quality. Content includes foundations of educational measurement and evaluation, development of learner performance outcomes for clinical practice, test construction and clinical performance evaluation tools, critical thinking, values and ethics related to educator role. The student examines continuous quality improvements of education programs using standards from external professional bodies and accreditation agencies.

  *This course is currently under development and subject to change.

• Advanced Nursing Practicum

  NR568 2 credit hours

  This course focuses on preparing the student to expand on the baccalaureate nursing foundation and advance knowledge to gain expertise in a specific nursing practice. The student will complete a mentored 60-hour clinical practicum to achieve professional, specialty, and course-related objectives.  This direct care practicum experience will provide the student an opportunity to synthesize learned concepts to apply the nursing process to improve patient outcomes.

  *This course is currently under development and subject to change.

• Implementing the Nurse Educator Role

  NR569 2 credit hours

  Selected teaching learning theories are examined and applied to the role of nurse educator and nursing education practice. Students establish nurse education practicum goals and objectives and are required to obtain a nurse educator mentor. The 60-hour practicum involves application of previously learned concepts through teaching in both the clinical and classroom environments.

  *This course is currently under development and subject to change.

Healthcare Systems Leadership (18 credits)

The Healthcare Systems Leadership concentration incorporates coursework and clinical experiences to help prepare nurses for career advancement into a range of administrative/leadership positions at various levels of management, from acute care settings to community-based healthcare organizations. Courses focus on the concepts of system science and integration, change theory and social change theories, and healthcare, and will include topics such as leadership, health policy, research, quality improvement, epidemiology and informatics. During their studies, students will analyze the principles of leadership and leadership science including theory, styles, contemporary approaches and strategies, as well as resource management in the healthcare environment.
 

Note: If you entered the nursing administration track on or prior to June 2017, please refer to this curriculum map.

• Leadership in Healthcare Organizations

  NR581 3 credit hours

  Students explore organizational science and its application to healthcare and analyze the principles of leadership and leadership science including theory, styles as well as contemporary approaches and strategies. The course emphasizes system science and integration, change theory and social change theories, and healthcare systems and organizational relationships. The student has the opportunity to address an organization’s challenges specific to healthcare delivery within the contemporary financial and social environment.

  *This course is currently under development and subject to change.

• Healthcare Resource Management - Financial Resources

  NR582 3 credit hours

  Students explore all aspects of finance related to healthcare systems including operating budgets and capital requests.  Calculation of revenue, direct and indirect costs as well as cost benefit calculations are considered.

  *This course is currently under development and subject to change.

• Healthcare Resource Management - Human Resources

  NR583 3 credit hours

  Students examine the critical aspects of human resource management in the context of healthcare systems. Human resource management includes confronting the nursing shortage through recruitment and retention, staffing management, performance appraisal and marketing. Prevention of workplace violence and disaster preparedness are also explored as opportunities and challenges for nurse leaders in managing the healthcare workforce.

  *This course is currently under development and subject to change.

• Innovation and Entrepreunership in Healthcare

  NR584 3 credit hours

  The student is introduced to definitions and concepts that pertain to innovation, including different types of innovation and entrepreneurship as well as individual-level, organizational and institutional factors that impact the healthcare innovation process. The course examines how entrepreneurs and healthcare organizations create and capture value through sustainable innovation that meet consumer and societal needs. It explores various approaches employed by entrepreneurial healthcare organizations and considers the knowledge, skills and abilities needed to succeed in today’s competitive and global environment.

  *This course is currently under development and subject to change.

• Strategic Planning in Healthcare

  NR585 3 credit hours

  The seminar emphasizes strategic planning in healthcare, business planning and conceptual analysis of role. Discussion focuses on the acquisition of knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA) for strategic planning and for practice as a nurse leader across traditional and non-traditional healthcare setting.

  *This course is currently under development and subject to change.

• The Nurse Leader's Role in Healthcare Systems

  NR586 3 credit hours

  This practicum experience expands and refines the leadership and management skills related to the administrative nurse leader role. Working with a nurse leader acting as a manager/administrator in a selected care environment, the student focuses their chosen leadership role, with a focus on quality, risk management and processes of managing health care delivery. The student attends agency organization and management meetings and works collaboratively to design and create a health care project appropriate to the student’s practice setting.

  *This course is currently under development and subject to change.

Residency

Our online Master of Science in Nursing program ends in a residency at the historic Norwich University campus in Vermont. During this time you will have the opportunity to meet with fellow students, faculty, and program staff in both formal classroom and informal settings. Academic recognition ceremonies and commencement cap off the week, and family and friends are encouraged to attend.

Norwich covers the cost of all meals and accommodation on campus.