Program Description

This graduate degree in nursing will provide students with academic knowledge, skills, and expertise in health promotion, including healthy living, disease prevention, epidemiology, communication, environmental science, public health policy, leadership, and evidence-based practice. Graduates will begin to integrate health promotion and prevention to analyze, understand, and collaborate with community health partners to address population health issues. The program consists of core, specialty, and clinical courses. This program is for licensed registered nurses (current, unrestricted license) with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree interested in advancing their careers to become a public health nurse.

Prior to enrollment, individuals considering a Master of Science in Nursing program should check with their applicable state board of nursing before enrolling in any graduate nursing program for any specific state requirements.

Core MSN Program Outcomes

Upon completion of this program, the student should be able to:

1. Integrate scientific evidence from nursing and biopsychosocial disciplines, genetics, public health, quality improvement, and organizational sciences when designing and implementing outcome measures in diverse settings and through the lifespan.
2. Demonstrate leadership skills that emphasize ethical and critical decision-making, fiscal responsibility, inter-professional relationships that promote safe, quality care within a systems framework.
3. Apply methods, tools, performance measures, and evidence-based standards when evaluating quality indicators within an organizational system.
4. Synthesize theories, models and research findings inherent to nursing practice, education and management to guide an organization or healthcare system towards achieving successful outcomes.
5. Apply client/patient care technologies and informatics to coordinate and ensure safe quality care and promote effective communication among members of the inter-professional healthcare team.
6. Analyze ethical, legal and sociocultural factors to influence policy development and healthcare delivery systems that promote the health of individuals and populations.
7. Articulate a leadership role within inter-professional teams through effective communication, collaboration and consultation with other professionals to manage, coordinate care and provide safe, quality family-centered and population-based care.
8. Incorporate organizational and culturally sensitive client and population centered concepts in the planning, delivery, management, and evaluation of direct and indirect evidence-based health promotion care and services to specified individuals, families and populations.
9. Implement scholarly activities in selected individuals, populations, and systems.

Public Health Program Outcomes

Students are expected to meet all the core MSN program outcomes as well as the Public Health program outcomes. Upon completion of this program, the student should be able to:

1. Develop health promotion and prevention strategies.
2. Describe the impact of cultural humility on client care in a public health role.
3. Analyze the impact of policy on the planning and delivery of care.
4. Coordinate population-based care in a public health role.
5. Integrate epidemiology into population-based practice.
6. Implement the role of the public health nurse in a variety of settings.

Conditional Enrollment For MSN

A student who has earned a BSN degree, but has not received licensure results may be conditionally admitted to the MSN program. A student who is admitted conditionally must sign an acknowledgement that they must provide evidence of a current, active, and unrestricted license as a registered nurse in the state in which they live by the end of the first 8-week session. Failure to provide evidence by the last day of the session will result in the student being unregistered from the MSN program. All grades will be expunged, and federal funds will be returned. A student who subsequently completes the licensure requirement may re-apply for admission, however may be required to repeat the previously attempted coursework.

Program Content

A minimum of 36.00 semester credit hours is required for graduation.