The request to revise Nursing MSN, Systems/Population Major, Concentrations in Community Health Nursing and Nurse Educator

Date: March 11, 2016
To: College of Health and Human Services
From: Office of Academic Affairs
Approved On: February 10, 2016
Approved by: Graduate Council
Implementation Date: Summer 2016

Note: Deletions are strikethroughs. Insertions are underlined.

Catalog Copy

Community/Public Health Nursing, M.S.N.

**This is a Distance Education program.**

The Community/Public Health Nursing specialty prepares nurses to assume leadership in assessing communities and populations, identifying high risk groups, and in partnership with communities, consumers, and stakeholders, developing culturally sensitive, acceptable and realistic community based nursing services.

Graduates are expected to demonstrate PHN Competencies and characteristics of practice identified by the Quad Council (2004). Upon graduation, individuals will be qualified to sit for the exam leading to Board Certification by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) as an Advanced Public Health Nurse.

Degree Requirements

This specialty requires completion of 38 credit hours in approved courses including:

Core Courses (9 credit hours)

Cognate Courses (9 credit hours)

System Core Courses (6 credit hours)

Specialty Courses (11 credit hours)

Capstone Courses (3 credit hours)

Nurse Educator, M.S.N.

**This is a Distance Education program.**

This specialty focuses on preparing nurses for advanced practice as a Nurse Educator in a selected area of expertise. Students declare their specialty in their application and develop a portfolio from their graduate work demonstrating their expertise. Graduates are prepared for academic positions teaching nursing at the entry into practice or RN-BSN levels. Graduates who have two years of full-time teaching experience will be prepared to take the NLN certification exam for Nurse Educators.

Additional Admission Requirement

In the essay, include a description of a selected area of specialization in nursing practice. It is expected that the student will develop a portfolio demonstrating expertise in a specialization during this program of study.

Degree Requirements

This program requires completion of 39 credit hours in approved courses. Including:

Core Courses (12 credit hours)

System Core Courses (6 credit hours)

Specialty Courses (18 credit hours)

Capstone Courses (3 credit hours)

NURS 6100. Chronic Illness Concepts and Theories for Advanced Nursing Practice. (3) Pre- or corequisite: NURS 6101. Focus on contemporary chronic illness concepts and theories relevant to individuals and families coping with long-term health deviations and their impact on society. Emphasis on knowledge and skills needed for advanced nursing practice.

NURS 6187. Health Informatics and Financial Management for Nurses. (3) Prerequisite: NURS 6101 or permission of the instructor. Pre- or corequisite: NURS 6185. This course emphasizes the managerial aspects of health administration finance that nurse managers need in order to interact with the information technology applications utilized in financial and budgeting systems. Increasingly financial decisions are influenced by information gathered using multiple media and resources. Budget and internal control, including auditing concepts and techniques are introduced as management control techniques. The following financial methods are presented as decision models for creating a culture of safety: forecasting, capital budgeting, and capital access. In addition, the managerial implications of cost analysis, cost behavior, capital investment decisions, equity and debt financing, and lease/purchase decisions are included.

NURS 6188. Strategic Planning and Decision Making in Nursing. (3) Prerequisites: NURS 6101 and NURS 6160; or permission of the instructor. Pre- or corequisite: NURS 6185. Topics will cover strategic decision making and problem solving theories and techniques for analysis and forecasting with attention to the processes and context of the situation. Strategic planning addresses identifying system vulnerabilities in building safety and resilience in an organization. Students will learn to apply selected descriptive and inferential statistical quantitative management tools useful in the analysis of managerial decisions and how to interpret findings. Avoiding common decision errors that occur because of faulty, ingrained mental models will be explored.