Master of Science Program

The Master of Science program at the UMass Amherst Elaine Marieb College of Nursing is a distance-accessible program offered through predominantly asynchronous delivery methods. All coursework is offered through University Without Walls (UWW) / Online Education: www.umass.edu/uww/.

I. Nursing Studies Concentration (MSNS): 30 credits

Objectives of the Master of Nursing Science Degree

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.

Eligibility

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.

II. Nursing Education Concentration (MSNE): 32 credits

The Master of Science in Nursing Education 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.

At the completion of this program, the graduate will be prepared to:

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 the six core courses in our Master of Science curriculum listed below and N621, a direct care clinical practicum in which the student will develop an area of advanced expertise in nursing practice.

MSNE Required Courses, and Course Sequence

MSNE Course Descriptions

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.

N621 Clinical Practicum for Advanced Direct Care and Clinical Reasoning for Nurse Educators- 2 credit
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/CCNE master’s in nursing education Essentials 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 Pariseaulyovina [at] umass [dot] edu (,) Program Specialist

Faculty Advisors

All College of Nursing faculty members who have graduate faculty status are potential advisors for master’s students. Students will be assigned an advisor upon admission. Graduate students are expected to meet at least once per semester with their advisor to outline their plan of study and discuss academic progress.

IV.  Public Health Concentration (36 credits)

Objective of the Master of Science Public Health degree (MS-PH)

This master’s degree will enable students to apply clinical nursing expertise and population health skills in state and local Public Health and Community Health agencies, Visiting Nurse and Homecare Associations, Federal Agencies and teach population 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 36 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

N540 Epidemiology for Clinicians (3cr) 
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 is a course that is designed to provide advanced practice nurses specializing in the role of the Public Health Nurse Leader with the 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 at the community and population level will occur with evidenced based strategies designed to strengthen health promotion and disease prevention, research, practice, education, and policy.

N750 Advanced Public Health Nursing II course 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.

Master of Science – Public Health Office

University of Massachusetts Amherst
Elaine Marieb College of Nursing
032 Skinner Hall
Amherst, MA 01003-9304
Dorian Pariseau, Program Specialist