Baystate Midwifery Education Program

The Baystate Midwifery Education Program (39 credits) is a post-baccalaureate graduate-level program leading to a certificate in midwifery. The hybrid program is an autonomous five-semester post-baccalaureate certificate midwifery education program with the option to obtain a concurrent master’s degree (12 credits) remotely through the University of Massachusetts Amherst. An eight-semester part-time option is also available.

• Baystate CNM Program (39 credits)
• Elaine Marieb College of Nursing (12 credits)

Course Requirements

Master of Science Student Support

University of Massachusetts Amherst Elaine Marieb College of Nursing
032 Skinner Hall
Amherst, MA 01003-9304
Dorian Pariseau, Program Assistant
dpariseau [at] umass [dot] edu (dpariseau[at]umass[dot]edu) 

Nursing Education Concentration (MSNE)

The Master of Science in Nursing Education (MSNE) concentration (32 credits) prepares students to educate nursing students and health care professionals in the classroom, clinical, and online learning environment for the overall enhancement of nursing practice and health care delivery. The program fulfills the knowledge and competencies specified by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) for master’s education and for the specific master’s in nursing education role and readies graduates to take the National League for Nursing certification examinations.

Objectives

1. Develop a grounding in pedagogical theories
2. Evaluate nursing curriculum using accreditation guidelines
3. Consider quality measures in nursing education in developing and evaluating nursing curriculum
4. Use creative teaching methods to enhance pedagogy
5. Reflect on their own teaching style as a means of incorporating new teaching strategies
6. Train nurses for education roles in colleges, universities, and clinical settings
7. Develop an area of advanced clinical expertise for further development of the nurse educator role

Course Requirements

The Nursing Education concentration in the master’s program consists of 32 credits, including N621Advanced Direct Care and Clinical Reasoning for Nurse Educations, a direct care clinical practicum in which the student will develop an area of advanced expertise in nursing practice, and N698T Practicum: Teaching in Nursing.

Required Courses and Course Sequence

Course Descriptions

• N603 Theoretical Components of Nursing Practice- 3 credits
  Students will examine and evaluate the components and functions of theory by exploring the role of different types of theory in a practice discipline.  
• N604 Introduction to Statistics for Health Research- 3 credits
  This course focuses on introductory statistical techniques frequently used in health sciences research, use of analytic software and database creation and management.
• N560 Simulation for Healthcare Education- 3 credits
  Critique theories associated with simulation, communication, and evaluation of student outcomes. Reviews care of simulation equipment and software and how to create and facilitate simulations culminating with a developed simulation.  
• N615 Advanced Pathophysiology- 3 credits  
  Concepts and theories related to disorders of physiological processes which result in health alterations in the child and the adult. Alterations in normal body functions leading to disease and discomfort of the individual presented within an organizing framework. Clinical inferences from concepts and theories of pathophysiology and pharmacology presented in relation to clinical nursing practice in primary care.  
• N614 Advanced Health Assessment- 3 credits
  Classroom and laboratory practice and case-based approaches to health assessment and differential diagnosis of common health problems for diverse groups provide the context for advanced health assessment and clinical reasoning.  
• N619 Advanced Pharmacology- 3 credits
  This course reviews in depth the principles of pharmacology for classes of drugs commonly used in various health care practices. The most pertinent drug classes for nursing practice are included in this course.
• N621 Clinical Practicum for Advanced Direct Care and Clinical Reasoning for Nurse Educators- 2 credits
  This supervised clinical practicum affords graduate students the opportunity to practice direct nursing care of diverse clients with varied needs in an identified area of nursing  
  practice at an advanced level while collaborating with an interprofessional team.  
• N641 Curriculum Development and Evaluation Process in Nursing- 3 credits  
  This course focuses on developing the knowledge and skills of nurse educators in applying principles of curriculum development, evaluation, and related processes in nursing education.  
• N642 Teaching in Nursing- 3 credits
  Focuses on the dynamic, creative process of teaching and learning clinical nursing in preparation for competent, reflective nursing practice. Philosophies, theories, methodologies, and trends relevant to nursing education included.  
• N698T Teaching Practicum in Nursing (Pre-requisites: N642 and N641)
  This course provides the framework, mentorship, and coaching for graduate students to develop skills in teaching in the classroom, in clinical settings, and in an online environment. 

Clinical and Teaching Practicum Information

Students have two practicums as part of their plan of study in the MSNE program. The first, N621 Clinical Practicum for Advanced Direct Care and Clinical Reasoning for Nurse Educators, is a direct care practicum in which students will develop an area of nursing expertise in a direct patient care setting. This is a two-credit clinical practicum course, which translates to 112 contact hours (at a one-credit-hour to four-clinical-hour ratio). These direct care clinical contact hours are allocated for supervised practice in selected clinical facilities or community agencies. Placement will be arranged through negotiation with clinical preceptors, agencies, and the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing.

Direct Care Learning Environment: Patient or Patient Population Setting

Examples:

• Health care facility/primary care setting
• Community/public health setting or outreach site
• Psychiatric-mental health setting
• OB/GYN or other specialty site
• Acute or chronic medical-surgical or long-term care/rehabilitation setting

The student will be assigned to a qualified preceptor who will guide the student in meeting course objectives. The course faculty will collaborate with the preceptor throughout the clinical practicum and will be responsible for evaluating the student’s performance and progress. Students will record their clinical hours in Typhon.

Practicum Focus

The AACN Core Competencies for Professional Nurse Education  emphasize practicum experience at the master’s degree level in the direct care role as a critical component in nursing educator training to advance the knowledge and expertise of students in a clinical area of practice. “Direct care” is defined as “nursing care provided to individuals or families that is intended to achieve specific health goals or achieve selected health outcomes.”

In N621, students will master clinical reasoning and nursing at the advanced graduate level. Depending on the plan of study, the practicum will run concurrently or sequentially with N614 Advanced Health Assessment, aligning with the didactic and theoretical material covered in the latter course. Students will hone baccalaureate level skills in health and physical assessment while advancing to higher level clinical reasoning skills and applying those skills within an identified clinical area of practice to build graduate level expertise in that area. Focus will be on analysis of patients/clients within the practice setting and application of evidence for best practice outcomes in developing and actualizing a treatment plan and patient education in collaboration with a preceptor and healthcare team.

Student Requirements for Nursing Education Practicum Sites and Preceptor Selection:

This practicum N621 will provide the opportunity for students to develop graduate level expertise in a specific area of nursing practice. All students must complete all pre-practicum requirements, including uploading documentation to the online credentialing platform (Castle Branch) before beginning clinical contact hours. See current graduate student handbook for specifics of requirements for entry to a clinical practicum site.

Students will engage in a search for their preceptors with the help of faculty. Acceptable qualified preceptors include master’s prepared nurses working directly with patients, Clinical Nurse Leaders (CNL), Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS), Nurse Practitioners, Nurse Midwives (CNMs), or MDs. Students may follow preceptors in hospitals, clinics, private practice settings and/or community settings. Students may choose settings such as acute or chronic care, long term care or rehabilitation, palliative care, psychiatric-mental health, public health primary care that match our faculty members’ areas of expertise and practice.

A student may choose to have two preceptors, if having two preceptors’ aids in achieving course requirements. Preceptors must have at least one year or greater experience in their field of expertise. Pre-approval by the practicum faculty or MS Director of all preceptors is required. Site visits for some local/regional students and online virtual or phone conference calls for all local/regional students and online virtual or phone conference calls for all local, regional, and distance preceptors will be completed during the practicum. The clinical practicum faculty of record for the course has responsibility for overall evaluation of all students and will rely, in part, on preceptors’ evaluations of students and students’ self-evaluations.

Students will arrange to complete hours as per preceptor/student schedules but should plan for about 8 hours per week so that contact hours can be completed by the end of the course. Each student will download the course syllabi (Both N614 and N621), the preceptor/faculty/student agreement, the preceptor handbook including preceptor orientation materials and all evaluation forms available in the Graduate Preceptor Handbook and Graduate Student Handbook and deliver to the preceptor on/before the initial contract meeting. The College of Nursing needs a signed preceptor/faculty/student agreement, preceptor’s resume/CV and contact information sent to the College of Nursing before contact hours can begin to be included in your student file and our preceptor directory.

Students will enroll in Typhon at the beginning of the program and document their clinical hours for N621 in the Typhon Software. They will continue to document their teaching hours in Typhon when they take their teaching practicum course, N698T and will develop a teaching portfolio.

Master’s Degree Program Office                                                                                          

University of Massachusetts Amherst
Elaine Marieb College of Nursing
032 Skinner Hall
Amherst, MA 01003-9304
Dorian Pariseau, Program Assistant
dpariseau [at] umass [dot] edu

Nursing Studies Concentration (MSNS)

Objectives

1. Apply advanced knowledge and core competencies to the development and evaluation nursing care for diverse individuals or populations.
2. Integrate and understand how nursing theory impacts nursing practice and the delivery of healthcare.
3. Interpret and critically analyze research and its application to nursing practice and evidence-based practice.

Course Requirements

The Nursing Studies Concentration in the master’s program consists of 30 credits, including the seven core courses in our Master of Science curriculum listed below:

MSNS Course Descriptions

• N603: Theoretical Components of Nursing Practice - 3 credits
  Students will examine and evaluate the components and functions of theory by exploring the role of different types of theory in a practice discipline.
• N604: Introduction to Statistics for Health Research - 3 credits
  This course focuses on introductory statistical techniques frequently used in health sciences research, use of analytic software and database creation and management.
• N615: Advanced Pathophysiology - 3 credits
  Concepts and theories related to disorders of physiological processes which result in health alterations in the child and the adult. Alterations in normal body functions leading to disease and discomfort of the individual presented within an organizing framework. Clinical inferences from concepts and theories of pathophysiology and pharmacology presented in relation to clinical nursing practice in primary care.
• N614: Advanced Health Assessment - 3 credits
  Classroom and laboratory practice and case-based approaches to health assessment and differential diagnosis of common health problems for diverse groups provide the context for advanced health assessment and clinical reasoning.
• N619: Advanced Pharmacology - 3 credits
  This course reviews in depth the principles of pharmacology for classes of drugs commonly used in various health care practices.  The most pertinent drug classes for nursing practice are included in this course.
• N630: Research Methodology in Nursing - 3 credits
  Relationship between research and theory development and clinical practice in nursing. Includes research design, methods of data collection, and a variety of analytical procedures for interpreting results.

Electives

In addition to the core courses, the following electives courses are needed: 12 additional credits, at least three of which must be from the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing. The remaining nine credits must meet the conditions for graduate credit as outlined in the Graduate Bulletin.  

Students enrolled in the PhD or DNP programs will be eligible to apply for this concentration. The goal of the MSNS concentration is to recognize students who have completed the necessary credits for a master’s degree in nursing and to provide competent MS-prepared nurses for generalist roles in nursing. This flexible program of study is intended for candidates in our doctoral or master’s programs who have fulfilled the requirements of the MSNS but are unable to complete their full plan of study or for those PhD or DNP students who were admitted as post-bachelor’s students and wish to complete the MSNS en route to completing the doctorate.

Public Health Concentration (MS-PH)

Objective

Our Master's of Science - Public Health (MS-PH) concentration (36 credits) will enable students to apply clinical nursing expertise and population health skills in federal, state and local Public Health and Community Health agencies, Visiting Nurse and Homecare Associations,  and teach public  health nursing. Population based practice in nursing focuses on improving the health of the whole community whether locally, nationally, or globally, including individuals, families, and communities, with particular emphasis on underserved and marginalized populations.  It involves a process of assessment, policy planning and development of holistic plans of care as well as critical thinking and interprofessional collaboration at the systems level.

Course Requirements

The Public Health concentration in the master’s program consists of 33 credits including two practicum experiences (N698G & N798LL).

The final two semesters will involve specialty courses and clinical practicums in public and population health practice.  These courses emphasize community engagement and collaboration including community needs assessments, practice in grant writing and the application and evaluation of evidence based nursing practice at the public health and population level.

Course Descriptions

• N604 Introduction to Statistics for Health Research- 3 credits
  This course focuses on introductory statistical techniques frequently used in health sciences research, use of analytic software and database creation and management.
• N540 Epidemiology for Clinicians – 3 credits
  This course provides in-depth theoretical knowledge on concepts and principles of epidemiology and its application in health promotion and disease prevention. Its focus will be on key areas of epidemiology. 
• N640 Advanced Public Health Nursing I course - 3 credits
  This course is designed to provide advanced practice nurses specializing in the role of the Public Health Nurse Leader with knowledge and skills required to identify and analyze population-based public health problems as they occur in the local national, and global community. Analysis and evaluation of health problems will take place and evidenced based strategies designed to strengthen health promotion and disease prevention research, practice, education, and policy. Application of this 
  knowledge also occurs in the concurrent clinical practicum N698G. Content and practicum focus is on conducting a Comprehensive Community Assessment and a targeted Needs Assessment. Application of this knowledge occurs in the concurrent clinical practicum N698G. Students will engage in 250 hours (about 1 week) of practical experience to meet course objectives. This practicum is conducted in a community that the student chooses. Students will need an outside community preceptor for this course. In order to plan ahead by mid-semester students should identify a preceptor and an agency that they will affiliate with for the next practicum course, N750 offered in the spring semester.  
• N750 Advanced Public Health Nursing II course- 3 credits is an examination of the theories, models and process of public health program planning, with a focus on designing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating population-based public health programs, including financial program management and effective grant writing strategies.  

The final two semesters will involve specialty courses and clinical practicums: Content and practicum focus is on conducting a Comprehensive Community Assessment and a targeted Needs Assessment. Application of this knowledge occurs in the concurrent clinical practicum N798LL. Students will engage in 250 hours of practical experience to meet course objectives. This practicum is conducted in a community that the student chooses. Students will need an outside community preceptor for this course. In order to plan ahead by mid-semester students should identify a preceptor and an agency that they will affiliate with for the next practicum course, N750 offered in the spring semester, and N798LL) in public and population health practice.  These courses emphasize community engagement and collaboration including community needs assessments, practice in grant writing and the application and evaluation of evidence-based nursing practice at the public health and population level.  

General Practicum Information for both courses :

• The practicum setting and preceptor must be approved before starting the practicum experiences.
• The student may prefer or need more than one preceptor to fulfill identified teaching/learning goals. 
• The preceptor(s) should be an expert in the field of public health practice who can assist the student in gaining access to the population of interest. Must be a master’s level or higher community health professional.
• The site must provide access to and authority for expanded scope of practice (for example: temporary entry into data systems, access to staff/patients for interviews/focus groups), which will allow students to practice at the highest level.
• Students will keep a log of clinical experiences, and every two weeks they will electronically enter the time and activity log into Typhon system signed by preceptor.

Master of Science Student Support

University of Massachusetts Amherst
Elaine Marieb College of Nursing
032 Skinner Hall
Amherst, MA 01003-9304
nursing [at] UMass [dot] edu (Nursing[at]UMass[dot]edu)