Graduate Nursing

This course provides students with an opportunity to explore ways to lead and transform healthcare systems by utilizing policy, technology, and systems-based thinking. It focuses on improving nursing practice, fostering healthy work environments, and driving better patient outcomes through strategic leadership, interprofessional collaboration, evidence-based innovation, and professional and leadership development. In addition, students analyze and evaluate the role of professional nursing in influencing the policy-making process and theories and research that influence leadership in complex systems. 

This course prepares graduate nursing students to integrate evidence-based practice principles into advanced nursing roles through scholarly inquiry, critical appraisal, and application of evidence. Emphasis is placed on systematic retrieval, evaluation, and synthesis of evidence, differentiation of evidence-based practice, quality improvement, and nursing research. Students develop competencies in research literacy, equity-informed evidence appraisal, and implementation planning to support quality, safety, and optimal outcomes across diverse clinical and organizational settings. 

This course provides a comprehensive overview of the principles of safety science, improvement science, and the foundational role of quality and safety in nursing practice. Concepts and frameworks of High Reliability Organizations (HROs) are explored, including the cultivation of a Just and accountable culture to minimize harm to patients and providers. Foundations of healthcare improvement are described, featuring established models such as the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) model, Lean Six Sigma, and DMAIC. These core competencies set the stage for the collaborative implementation of a quality improvement project in the second portion of the course, which focuses on systemic change. 

This course examines the art and science of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through organized efforts of society, organizations, communities, and individuals. Students critically examine social determinants of health and their impact on population outcomes. Interdisciplinary partnerships and evolving professional nursing roles are explored for their potential to improve population health and address systemic healthcare challenges. 

This course provides an advanced, evidence-based examination of pathophysiological processes underlying commonly encountered health conditions across the lifespan and within diverse populations, spanning the continuum from health to disease. Emphasis is placed on the integration of nursing science, interdisciplinary theories, and current research to support advanced clinical judgment and person-centered care. Learners will analyze complex adaptive and maladaptive physiological responses to disease, injury, and stressors, with attention to access, social determinants of health, and population-specific considerations. Learners will apply pathophysiologic principles to inform advanced nursing assessment, clinical reasoning, and decision-making to optimize health outcomes across varied healthcare contexts. 

This course prepares nurses to lead within complex, dynamic health care delivery systems, with a focus on improving patient and population health outcomes. Students will critically evaluate the impact of social determinants of health, economic policies, politics, culture, and systems functioning. Students will apply systems thinking to lead change, ensure ethical stewardship of resources, and foster interprofessional partnerships to enhance system effectiveness. 

This course prepares students to integrate advanced principles of pharmacology and pharmacokinetics into clinical reasoning for the management of therapeutic interventions across the lifespan. Students will synthesize foundational scientific knowledge with genomic, personal, and environmental data to design, implement, and evaluate individualized pharmacological care plans. Emphasis is placed on demonstrating clinical judgment in addressing unique physiological and therapeutic needs of diverse and special populations to promote, maintain, and restore health. 

This course explores advanced organizational behavior theory, systems thinking, and evidence-based research to design managerial and leadership interventions within complex healthcare systems. Students analyze how leader actions, organizational structures, and culture impact patient-centered care, population health outcomes, and team performance. Emphasis is placed on leveraging systems-based practice to drive quality, safety, and equity, while developing the professional leadership competencies necessary to cultivate healthy work environments and foster interprofessional partnerships. 

This course prepares students for the nurse educator role by examining evidence-based teaching and learning practices that support learner achievement across academic and practice settings. Students apply theoretical foundations of adult learning, curriculum design, and assessment within a competency-based education framework to develop inclusive, learner-centered instruction across multiple modalities. Emphasis is placed on the ethical, legal, technological, and socio-economic dimensions of teaching and learning, and effective use of educational technologies and informatics. Current trends, innovations, and challenges in higher education, healthcare, and nursing education are analyzed to inform the design, implementation, and evaluation of evidence-based 

This graduate-level course supports the MSN students’ knowledge of quality improvement (QI) principles and provides advanced competencies in ways to implement QI in healthcare and enhance patient outcomes within complex healthcare systems. This course builds on the foundational QI concepts introduced in Quality Improvement I. Students will examine meaningful ways to implement, measure, and evaluate interprofessional continuous quality improvement (CQI) initiatives. Students will evaluate evidence-based strategies, analyze data for performance improvement, explore advancing informatics and technologies to support QI, and synthesize QI frameworks and models as they create a tailored, actionable, and planned approach that will prepare the student with the necessary skills to complete a CQI capstone project in their future capstone courses and advanced leadership roles. 

This course prepares healthcare managers and executive leaders with the financial knowledge and analytical skills essential for effective decision-making in complex, diverse healthcare systems. Students explore healthcare economics, financial management, budgeting, and reimbursement models while applying data-driven, evidence-informed strategies to optimize resource utilization and promote high-quality, sustainable care. Through mastery of core financial and business concepts, collaborative learning, and analysis of real or simulated healthcare budgets, learners integrate fiscal accountability, cost-effectiveness, and ethical stewardship into systems-level leadership practice.

This is the first course in a two-part Clinical Nurse Leader capstone sequence. The purpose of this clinical course includes preparing students for advanced generalist practice through the implementation and evaluation of a systems-based quality or process improvement initiative within an assigned clinical microsystem. Building on competencies developed across the MSN curriculum, students integrate professional nursing knowledge, leadership, quality improvement, systems thinking, informatics, interprofessional collaboration, population health, and ethical practice to improve health outcomes and healthcare processes. The course will require the student to engage in the clinical environment for 230 hours. 

This course is the second course in a two-part Clinical Nurse Leader capstone experience. Students employ skills and knowledge gained throughout the MSN program to implement, evaluate, and disseminate findings of a clinical quality improvement project in the assigned clinical microsystem. Students continue to apply advanced conceptual knowledge in clinical practice experiences at the graduate level. Students integrate essential patient advocacy and education competencies to ensure delivery of high-quality care as an advanced practice nurse. The course will require the student to engage in the clinical environment for 230 hours.