This Bridge to Master of Science in Nursing: Adult Clinical Nurse Specialist program is designed for seasoned registered nurses who have bachelor‛s degrees in a field outside of nursing who want to earn their MSN. Instead of requiring these students to earn a BSN degree, they take six courses from our Bachelor of Science in Nursing program and then launch into the MSN Adult Clinical Nurse Specialist track.
The Master of Science in Nursing: Adult Clinical Nurse Specialist program incorporates the advanced roles of clinician, researcher, learner/educator/coach, leader, community advocate, manager of systems, collaborator, and consultant. The program prepares the nurse with advanced clinical and organizational decision-making skills based on critical thinking, evidence-based research, and diagnostic reasoning. The Adult Clinical Nurse Specialist synthesizes elements of caring into the nurse-client relationship within practice based on advocacy, as well as ethical, social, legal, political, and historical perspectives. Clinical nurse specialists are involved in nursing leadership, nursing education, and in conducting research within the clinical setting.
A culminating practicum experience is a part of this clinical nurse specialist degree program. The practicum provides students with experiences in the three spheres of influence of CNS practice: patient/client, nurses and nursing practice, and organization/system within their specialty area. This clinical practice affords students the opportunity to refine their clinical decision-making and to develop their CNS roles of clinical expert, leader, collaborator, consultant, educator, researcher and change agent; and to explore how their professional attributes, ethical conduct, and professional citizenship are integrated in CNS practice to affect outcomes within the spheres.
| Course # | Course Title | Course Description | Credits |
| NRS-430V | Professional Dynamics | This course is a bridge course for the RN who is returning to formal education for the baccalaureate degree in nursing. The course focuses on differentiated nursing practice competencies, nursing conceptual models, professional accountability, integrating spirituality into practice, group dynamics, and critical thinking. Emphasis is also placed on writing and oral presentation skills. | 3 |
| NRS-434V | Health Assessment | This course focuses on methods of health history taking, physical examination skills, documentation, and health screening. The course emphasizes the individual as the client, functional health patterns, community resources, and the teaching learning process. | 3 |
| HLT-362V | Applied Statistics for Health Care Professionals | This introductory course on statistical concepts emphasizes applications to health care professions. The course is designed to prepare students to interpret and evaluate statistics and statistical methods used in published research papers and to make decisions about the appropriateness of specific statistical methods in a variety of settings. Areas of emphasis include introduction to analysis of variance, regression, and graphical presentation; experimental design; descriptive statistics; sampling methods; and z, t, and chi-square. | 3 |
| NRS-433V | Introduction to Nursing Research | This writing-intensive course promotes the use of research findings as a basis for improving clinical practice. Quantitative and qualitative research methodologies are presented. Emphasis is on the critical review of research studies and their applications to clinical practice. An overview of evidence-based practice is provided. Prerequisite: PSY 363, BIO 363, or HLT 362V. | 3 |
| NRS-427V | Concepts in Community and Public Health | This course focuses on the community as a large system of people of varying cultures, spiritual values, geographic norms, and economic conditions, all influenced by social-legal-political variables that impact individual and community health. Particular attention is paid to vulnerable subgroups in the community. Emphasis is placed on critical analysis, using epidemiological data and functional health pattern assessments to plan and intervene in areas of health promotion and disease prevention. | 3 |
| NRS-410V | Pathophysiology and Nursing Management of Clients' Health | This course is designed to enhance the working RN‛s existing understanding of the pathophysiological processes of disease as they affect clients across the lifespan. The interrelationship of structural and functional reactions of cells and tissues to genetic alterations and injurious agents provide the foundation for comprehending clinical manifestations and treatment protocols. Critical thinking and nursing management are enhanced through the use of case studies that integrate nutritional and pharmacological concepts. The understanding of environmental and biological risk factors provides the nurse with the knowledge to provide health promotion and prevention education. | 3 |
| NUR-502 | Theoretical Foundations for Nursing Roles And Practice | This course examines nursing as a profession and a discipline and the individual nurse‛s role as a member of the profession. The theoretical foundations for nursing practice and roles are explored and applied. Emphasis is placed on developing scholarly writing and presentation skills. Critical thinking skills are refined as students discuss and synthesize the literature that guides nursing practice with a special emphasis on caring, diversity, and spirituality. | 4 |
| NUR-504 | Health Care Research Analysis and Utilization | This course focuses on the critical analysis of nursing and health care research and its application to nursing education, nursing practice, and the delivery of health care services. Emphasis is placed on strategies to access current and relevant data, synthesize the information, and translate new knowledge to practice. Ethical issues in the design and conduct of research are addressed. Prerequisite: NUR 502. | 4 |
| NUR-508 | Ethics, Policy, and Finance in the Health Care System | This course utilizes health care policy as a framework to analyze how health is defined and health care is designed and delivered in the United States and around the world. Emphasis is placed on issues of cost, quality, access, disparities, and finance. The various roles of the master‛s prepared nurse in the health care system are explored. Prerequisite: NUR 504. | 4 |
| NUR-642 | Advanced Physiology and Pathophysiology | This Web-enhanced course focuses on the advanced physiology and pathophysiology principles. This course is used to guide the family nurse practitioner (FNP), clinical nurse specialist (CNS), and clinical nurse specialist education (CNS-ED) student in interpreting changes in normal function that result in symptoms indicative of illness. The emphasis is placed on the genetic, molecular, cellular, and organ system levels. Co-requisite: NUR 644. | 3 |
| NUR-644 | Advanced Pharmacology | This Web-enhanced course focuses on the advanced pharmacotherapy principles and practices to enable the family nurse practitioner (FNP), clinical nurse specialist (CNS), and the clinical nurse specialist education (CNS-ED) student to prescribe and monitor the effects of medications and selected herbal therapy. Emphasis is on the pharmacodynamics of clients with common, acute, and chronic health problems in various stages of the lifecycle in diverse populations. Evidence-based research provides the basis for selecting effective, safe, and cost-efficient pharmacologic or integrative regimens. Appropriate client education as to various prescribed pharmacologic agents in incorporated. Legal requirements for prescriptive writing and dispensing authority are covered. Prerequisite: One of the following: 1) NUR 640; or 2) none. Co-requisite: NUR 642. | 3 |
| NUR-640 | Advanced Health Assessment and Diagnostic Reasoning with Skills Lab | This course builds upon the student‛s previous assessment skills, offering more advanced health assessment content to provide the foundation for the advanced practice nursing role. This course also gives emphasis to focused assessments for a chief complaint that include physical, psychosocial, and spiritual health assessment; risk assessment; functional assessment; and physical examination in diverse populations. Students use a systematic method of diagnostic reasoning and clinical decision making to establish a differential diagnosis. An overview of appropriate protocols for performing health screening and for ordering, performing, and interpreting lab, radiographic, and other diagnostic data is included based on best practice consistent with resource allocations. Topics—from effective communication and client teaching/counseling to eliciting clients‛ interpretation of their health status and perceived barriers—are incorporated throughout the course to maintain a nursing focus on patient responses to illness or the threat of illness. Effective documentation and medical recordkeeping are required. Prerequisites: One of the following combinations: 1) Undergraduate Health Assessment course; or 2) NUR 642 and NUR 644. | 3 |
| NUR-647E | Nursing Education Seminar I | This course examines professional standards as a foundation for curriculum design in nursing education in all settings. It explores the nature of traditional academic education and nontraditional academic education, as well as continuing nursing education. This course also focuses on theories of teaching/learning, traditional and alternative instructional strategies, and nursing education in the classroom and clinical setting. The course incorporates the development of curriculum frameworks and learning activities for adult learners from diverse backgrounds. Strategies to enhance critical thinking are included. Prerequisite: NUR 645E. | 4 |
| NUR-655 | CNS I - Theoretical Foundations | This course focuses on the theories, conceptual models, and research that are the basis of CNS practice. Building on advanced practice nursing theory, students engage in discussion of theoretical and empirical knowledge of illness and wellness—both of disease and nondisease etiologies—from the three spheres of influence, particularly the patient/client sphere. Advanced health assessment, advanced pharmacology, and advanced physiology and pathology principles are integrated along with professional/legal and spirituality concepts. Content includes: Theoretical foundations of CNS practice, Phenomena of nursing concern, integrating health promotion, Design and development of innovative nursing interventions, Clinical inquiry/critical thinking using advanced knowledge, Consultation, teaching, and coaching with focus on the individual/family/groups Measurement, outcome evaluation, including cost-effectiveness and evidence-based research focused on the patient/client sphere. The clinical experience takes place in the student‛s chosen specialty area and integrates the theoretical concepts covered in the didactic portion of the course. Clinical component: 3 clinical credits. Clinical hours: 150. | 6 |
| NUR-657 | CNS II - Influence Change in Health Care Systems | This course focuses on the essential characteristics and competencies of the CNS, exploring the CNS roles of clinical leader, collaborator, change agent, consultant, educator, and researcher. Students discover how, in utilizing these roles, a CNS can influence the quality of care within health care systems. The course builds on the patient/client sphere of influence, focusing on the broader nurse/nursing practice and organizational/systems spheres of influence. Content includes: Influencing change, Systems thinking, Leadership for multidisciplinary collaboration, Consultation, teaching, and coaching focused on groups, Measurement, outcome evaluation including cost-effectiveness, and evidence-based research focused on the group/organization, Technology, products, and devices development/evaluation. The clinical experience takes place in the student‛s chosen specialty area and the above concepts are integrated in that specialty setting. The clinical experience integrates the theoretical concepts covered in the didactic portion of the course. Clinical component: 3 clinical credits. Clinical hours: 150. Prerequisite: NUR 655. | 6 |
| NUR-663 | CNS Clinical Internship | A culminating practicum experience, completed in person with a preceptor, provides students with experiences in the three spheres of influence of CNS practice: patient/client, nurses and nursing practice, and organization/system within their specialty area. This clinical practice affords students opportunity to refine their clinical decision-making skills in differential illness diagnoses and treatments that require nursing interventions; to develop their CNS roles of clinical expert, leader, collaborator, consultant, educator, researcher and change agent; and to explore how their professional attributes, ethical conduct, and professional citizenship are integrated in CNS practice to affect outcomes within the spheres. The course includes the application of the core content specific to CNS practice identified in NUR 655 and NUR 657. Online case study discussions analyzed by evidence-based practice guidelines are utilized. Impact of the student CNS on nursing practice and system-level outcomes are identified. Clinical component: 4 clinical credits. Clinical hours: 200. Prerequisite: NUR 657. | 4 |
| NUR-699 | Evidence-Based Practice Project | This capstone course provides an opportunity for students to develop an evidence-based practice project proposal that addresses a problem, issue, or concern in professional practice. Students identify a problem amenable to research-based intervention; search literature; propose a solution; and develop a plan to implement the solution, evaluate its outcome(s), and disseminate the findings. Problems identified are those that are appropriate to students‛ specialty tracks: nursing leadership, nursing education, clinical nurse specialist, and family nurse practitioner. This course must be taken after completion of specialty courses. Prerequisite: One of the following: 1) NUR 508 or 2) NUR 508 and NUR 649E. | 4 |
| Required Course Total Credit: | 63 | ||
| Courses: | 63 credits |
This program is offered in the following formats or locations:
An online education allows you the flexibility to fulfill your educational goals without distracting you from your career. Full-time faculty members support our online students while our dynamic tools allow for engaging and challenging discussions with classmates. Classes start every month.
To meet the demands of today's working adults, this degree is offered through our convenient evening program. Classes meet one evening per week and allow you to interact directly with instructors and peers face-to-face. Locations vary - speak with an enrollment counselor to learn more.
Program Disclosure
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* Please refer to the Academic Catalog for more information. Program subject to change.