Purpose
The purpose of the master's program in nursing is to prepare nurses for advanced practice as nurse practitioners or nurse administrators. The master's program in nursing is dedicated to meeting the advanced practice nursing needs of the citizens of Nebraska and the region through excellence in graduate education. The College of Nursing is committed to preparing advanced practice nurse leaders who are recognized for their scholarship, practice, and professional standards. The outcomes and competencies presented here are representative of the core competencies of graduates. Specialty specific expectations may be found in other documents.
Outcomes for Students Enrolled Beginning Fall 2024
Outcome 1: Advanced-level nurses synthesize and apply knowledge from nursing sciences and other disciplines to integrate clinical judgement to plan, deliver, and evaluate care for individuals, family, and community across the life span.
Outcome 2: Advanced-Level nurses provide individualized and holistic person-centered care with intentional emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion using evidence and clinical judgement in the planning and delivering of care across time, spheres of care (wellness, disease prevention, chronic disease management, regenerative/restorative care and hospice/palliative care) and developmental levels.
Outcome 3: Advanced-level nurses partner with a variety of stakeholders to advocate for and implement population healthcare encompassing public health prevention, disease management, and emergency preparedness with equitable opportunities based on social determinants of health.
Outcome 4: Advanced-level nurses ethically evaluate, translate, and implement nursing evidence into practice to improve health and disseminate results to transform healthcare.
Outcome 5: Advanced-level nurses employ principles of safety science and quality improvement to create and maintain secure, equitable, effective and person-centered healthcare environments for all.
Outcome 6: Advanced-level nurses lead and model the core competencies of interprofessional partnerships (effective communication, ethical decision making, roles and responsibilities, and collaboration) to provide evidence-based strategies and processes to improve team effectiveness and health outcomes of vulnerable populations.
Outcome 7: Advanced-level nurses participate in designing, analyzing, and evaluating innovative system-based practices to optimize value, cost, health equity, and quality outcomes across integrated healthcare organizations.
Outcome 8: Advanced-level nurses utilize innovative, technology-rich modalities for care delivery, monitoring and analysis of healthcare outcomes, and creation and maintenance of data points/databases/information stores to inform healthcare decisions and to provide expanded access to care.
Outcome 9: Advanced-level nurses demonstrate a professional nursing identity which encompasses emotional intelligence, courage, and assertiveness while mentoring and advocating for social justice, equitable healthcare, and ongoing promotion of integrity of the profession.
Outcome 10: Advanced-level nurses demonstrate a commitment to ongoing personal growth through self-reflection and self-care which contributes to well-being; and embrace life-long learning through knowledge expansion, contributing to the growth of individuals and the profession.
Outcomes and Competencies for Students Enrolled Before Fall 2024
Outcome I
Advanced practice nurses work collaboratively within the health care system to promote client health, provide prevention management and improve client outcomes.
Competencies. The advanced practice nurse:
- Translates knowledge, theories, models, and research from nursing and related disciplines in the implementation of evidenced-based nursing practice.
- Evaluates, uses, and/or develops information, and knowledge resources for use in delivery, and/or coordination of care in diverse settings for individuals, families, communities and population aggregates.
- Uses advanced assessment, diagnostic reasoning, evidenced-based interventions, and evaluation skills for improving client health outcomes and changing health system issues.
- Generates clinical prevention interventions for promotion of health changing behaviors in individuals, families, communities and population aggregates.
- Integrates principles of ethics, genetics/genomics, interpersonal processes, cultural diversity, and respect for human beings into their advanced practice.
- Analyzes consumer healthcare needs through examination of interrelationships of demographics, major social health care problems, health disparities, regulatory requirements, and economic health care policies.
Outcome II
Advanced practice nurses are leaders for the discipline and are responsive to current and emerging issues facing nursing and healthcare.
Competencies. The advanced practice nurse:
- Serves as a leader to facilitate improvement in client outcomes and health care systems.
- Values personal integrity and growth in self and others as an essential element in effective leadership within professional nursing organizations and the health care system.
- Design system changes to impact the delivery of health care for nurses in advanced practice.
- Builds networks and effectively communicates (electronic, written and oral) with the interdisciplinary health care team, professional colleagues, community leaders, and policy makers.
- Supports quality, evidenced-based safe and cost-effective health care.
- Applies knowledge from economics and business to understand how health care is financed and organized.
- Advocates for health care policy change to influences the health care system and nursing practice.
- Supports quality health care by adhering to professional standards and leading by example.
- Applies knowledge from economics and business to understand how health care is financed and organized nationally, state wide, and locally.
- Understands the health care policy development process and how it influences the health system and nursing practice.
Outcome III
Advanced practice nurses translate and disseminate research outcomes to advance nursing knowledge, and practice, and direct solutions to nursing and health system problems.
Competencies. The advanced practice nurse:
- Critically appraises research and synthesizes research and practice evidence.
- Analyzes the relevance of research outcomes for clinical and health system and integrates them into advanced practice.
- Applies research outcomes to improve practice outcomes within the practice setting.
- Employs electronic and emerging technology to access, process, and disseminate information in order to improve health outcomes.
Nurse Practitioner credentialing – Graduates are eligible to apply to take the Nurse Practitioner board certification examination from the American Nurses Credentialing Center in Adult-Gerontology Acute Care, Adult-Gerontology Primary Care, Family Nurse Practitioner, Pediatric Primary Care Nurse Practitioner, and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner; from the National Certification Corporation for Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner; and from the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners for Adult-Gerontology Acute Care, Adult-Gerontology Primary Care, and Family Nurse Practitioner; and from the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board for the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner.
Nurse Leader/Executive credentialing – Based on the graduates' positions in their organizations and years of experience, graduates may be eligible to apply to take the Nurse Leader/Administrator/Executive board certification examination in this specialty from the American Nurses Credentialing Center or the American Organization for Nursing Leadership.
Clinical Nurse Leader credentialing - Certification opportunities exist after graduation through the Commission on Nurse Certification (CNC).
Nurse Educator courses are optional and can be taken concurrently with any specialty track above or with one of the doctoral programs. All specialties listed above, with the exception of the Nurse Leader/Executive track, are also available as a Post-Graduate Certificate (PGC).
Admission Requirements
Following receipt of the completed application from NursingCAS and a complete set of transcripts from all educational institutions attended, designated faculty within each specialty area evaluate, interview, and select applicants and recommend them to the professional graduate committee of the College of Nursing for admission. Admission is competitive and capacity is limited. Applicants with strong educational backgrounds are considered first. See the Admission Policies for Master's Degree policy (5.3.3) in the Student Policies section for details.
Admission Key Dates
These MSN/PGC specialty tracks below admit students once annually.
| MSN/PGC Specialty | Application Opens | Application Due | Program Start |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adult-Gerontological NP | September 1 | February 1 | August |
| Family NP | September 1 | February 1 | August |
| Pediatric NP | September 1 | February 1 | August |
| Psychiatric Mental Health NP | September 1 | February 1 | August |
The MSN specialty tracks below admit students twice annually.
| MSN/PGC Specialty | Application Opens | Application Due | Program Start |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clinical Nurse Leader; Nurse Leader/Executive; MSN Nurse Leader/MBA Dual; Women's Health NP | September 1 | February 1 | August |
| Clinical Nurse Leader; Nurse Leader/Executive; MSN Nurse Leader/MBA Dual; Women's Health NP | April 1 | August 1 | January |
Nurse Educator Training
Students may seek the nurse educator training through one of three pathways:
- Concurrent preparation as an advanced practice nurse in one of the College's master's programs specialty tracks
- Through doctoral level (PhD or DNP) cognates required for students enrolled in the College's doctoral programs
- As teacher training for RNs who already have a master's degree
MSN and DNP students register for the 600-level courses; PhD students register for the 800-level courses.
There are four nurse educator courses for a total of 12 credits.
| Code | Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| NRSG 691 | TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES FOR THE CLASSROOM | 3 |
| NRSG 692 | TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES IN CLINICAL AND SIMULATION | 3 |
| NRSG 693 | USING TECHNOLOGY TO ENHANCE TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES | 3 |
| NRSG 694 | IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EDUCATOR ROLE: PRACTICUM | 3 |
| Total Credit Hours | 12 | |