Clinical Nurse Leader (ADN/RN), MSN

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The RN-MSN accelerated degree program is designed for the registered nurse who holds an Associate’s Degree in Nursing or a Hospital Diploma and has now decided to pursue graduate nursing education. Students do not earn a BSN degree but progress directly to the MSN. The program is comprised of 38 units and is designed to be completed in six semesters.

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Program Learning Outcomes

Graduates of USF’s MSN program will understand the rationale for care and competently deliver this care to an increasingly complex and diverse population in multiple environments at the point-of-care, across the lifespan with particular emphasis on health promotion and risk reduction services. At the completion of the program, the graduate will:

The learner will integrate, translate, and apply established and evolving disciplinary nursing knowledge and ways of knowing, as well as knowledge from other disciplines, including a foundation in liberal arts and natural and social sciences to form the basis for clinical judgment and innovation in nursing practice and the practice of professional nursing.
The learner will practice holistic, individualized, just, respectful, compassionate, coordinated, evidence-based, and developmentally appropriate person-centered care focused on the individual within multiple complicated contexts, including family and/or important others.
The learner will participate in collaborative activities with both traditional and non-traditional partnerships from affected communities, public health, industry, academia, health care, local government entities, and others for the improvement of equitable population health.
The learner will generate, synthesize, translate, apply, and disseminate nursing knowledge to improve health and transform health care.
The learner will employ established and emerging principles of safety and improvement science as core values of nursing practice and enhance quality and minimize risk of harm to patients and providers through both system effectiveness and individual performance.
The learner will demonstrate Intentional collaboration across professions and with care team members, patients, families, communities, and other stakeholders to optimize care, enhance the healthcare experience, and strengthen outcomes.

The learner will effectively and proactively coordinate resources to provide safe, quality, equitable care to diverse populations, leading within complex systems of health care.
The learner will demonstrate the use of information and communication technologies and informatics processes to provide care, gather data, form information to drive decision making, and support professionals as they expand knowledge and wisdom for practice and improve the delivery of safe, high-quality, and efficient healthcare services.
The learner will form and cultivate a sustainable professional nursing identity, accountability, perspective, collaborative disposition, and comportment that reflects nursing’s characteristics and values.
The learner will participate in activities and self-reflection that foster personal health, resilience, and well-being, lifelong learning, and support the acquisition of nursing expertise and assertion of leadership.
The learner will demonstrate compassionate care for the whole person by integrating Jesuit values of cura personalis, persons for other, contemplatives in action, fostering a commitment to lifelong learning, social justice, solidarity with vulnerable populations, and ethical decision-making in their practice.

Major Requirements (38 units)

Semester 1

Semester 2

Semester 3

Semester 4

Semester 5

Semester 6

Notes:

500-level coursework must be taken in order listed. 600-level coursework must be taken in order listed for students completing the program in a cohort.

Exemptions: MSN students who successfully complete NURS 676 Health Policy, Ethics, and Advocacy and continue on to the University of San Francisco Doctor of Nursing Practice program are exempt from taking NURS 7006 Policy and Ethics in Population Health, as part of the Population Health Leadership and Nurse Practitioner (FNP & PMHNP) DNP program options.

For BSN graduates who want to be eligible for the California Public Health Certificate, the NURS 505 and 506 are required.

NURS 505 is a prerequisite for NURS 506; these courses must be taken in the order listed above.

NURS 660 and NURS 670 represent practicum courses, 400 total practice hours are required.

NURS 506 Community Health Practicum does not count toward total practice hours.

Only one (1) theory course may be taken in the final semester with NURS 670 (Internship).

The number of courses taken/semester may be reduced to slow the pace of the program, except where students are completing the program in a cohort. Reducing courseload may impact progressing with the cohort you were admitted into (where applicable). Contact your Academic Adviser prior to reducing your courseload.