MSN Nursing Leadership in Health Systems Management

Confronting Issues in Contemporary Health Care Environments examines Health care policy and policies in terms of contemporary issues related to advanced practice nursing, health care access, quality and cost. The focus of this course is the critical analysis of health policy and legal issues.

This is a course for masters students who have already had some experience in ethical decision making, both academically in the classroom and in practice. This course will take an interdisciplinary focus, as ethical decision making at this level rarely ever is the decision of a single discipline. A variety of ethical topics will be analyzed from various perspectives and depths in an effort to more broadly and more profoundly address the moral difficulties that the advanced practice practitioner in an interdisciplinary environment is likely to encounter.

This is an introductory course which focuses on the fundamentals of biostatistics for health sciences graduate students. Excel-based and SPSS assignments will be used to supplement the content.

The course is designed to provide professional graduate students with the skills necessary to evaluate the relationship between practice and published research. The course content includes an overview of research concepts, ethics in research, literature searches and reviews, quantitative and qualitative research methods and designs, and data collection, analysis and interpretation techniques. An interdisciplinary team of faculty teaches the course using a problem solving approach. When feasible, concepts and problems are addressed by students in interdisciplinary teams. Through evaluation of published research in an interdisciplinary context, the skills of evidence-based practice are developed.

This course is designed to provide an in-depth introduction to information systems and technologies that support practice and improve patient care and outcomes. Students develop an understanding of relationships between patient care and information and data issues involved in clinical practice in addition to examining informatics issues within complex healthcare systems.

This course focuses on using research to guide evidence-based practice. Communication, collaboration, and decision making skills from a multidisciplinary approach essential to collect, evaluate, and apply research to practice will be emphasized. During this course the student will learn to (1) conduct efficient, thorough searches of the research literature; (2) evaluate the quality of a body of research through an appraisal of design, methodology, and data analysis; (3) summarize the findings from an overall body of research; and (4) apply research evidence to issues of current nursing practice.

Changes in the health care system are demanding practitioners with well-honed leadership skills and with a sense of stewardship. This course explores the concepts of leadership and stewardship from a historical and contemporary perspective with particular application to the health professions.

Understanding the economic and financial issues that affect today's health care environment is required for the nurse providing evidence-based services to manage and compete effectively in the health care marketplace. This course will address the changing demands for health care services, quality improvement and management measures and cost containment strategies.

Ongoing demands for increased productivity, quality and service have resulted in a renewed emphasis on operational efficiency in the delivery of healthcare services and nursing care. This course will utilize clinical practice settings and case studies to examine critical issues related to restructuring patient care delivery models and clinical practice.

This course presents an intensive examination of the role of organizational leaders in building and leading high performance teams for maximum effectiveness. It is focused on the evolving roles of leaders as they advance from front line to higher level management positions in clinical settings.

This course will address the basics of financial management in health care organizations including accounting, cost analysis, managing financial resources, and other management tools helpful to a nurse manager. Budget development and FTE allocation will be addressed along with federal and state regulations.

Nursing care is increasingly recognized as vital to the success of healthcare initiatives and organizations. This course will utilize a systems focus to analyze the "fit" and "position" of nursing within organizations. Issues related to power, politics and influence; the ethics of scarcity management systems and processes; and organizational dynamics will be examined.

This practicum provides the Student an opportunity to operationalize the leadership role in appropriate agencies and facilities in conjunction with an expert nursing leader. A capstone project involving a project of interest to both the Student and the organization will be initiated, to be completed in conjunction with NURS 569.

The focus of the practicum will be on exposure to the management of information to support decision-making, communication, and strategic planning. These include systems for managing human resources, improving quality of care and tracking organizational metrics. The capstone project begun in the Operations Management Practicum (NURS 568) will be completed.

This required course is the application and integration of the role and competencies of the MSN prepared nurse with advanced nursing knowledge who will seek employment in a diversity of advanced practice roles. The roles of the MSN graduate as clinician, educator, researcher, expert, and leader are presented and explored. Interpretation and application, professional issues, practice issues, legislative issues, certification issues, insurance issues, legal issues and ethical conflict resolution in advanced nursing practice are explored.