This Bridge to Master of Science in Nursing: Nursing Leadership in Health Care Systems program is designed for seasoned registered nurses who have bachelor‛s degrees in a field outside of nursing who want to earn their MSN and advance their career to move into a management role. Instead of requiring these students to earn a BSN degree, they take six courses from our Bachelor of Science in Nursing program and then launch into the MSN Nursing Leadership in Health Care Systems track.

The Bridge to Master of Science in Nursing with an Emphasis in Nursing Leadership in Health Care Systems prepares nurses for leadership roles in today's rapidly changing health care delivery systems. Graduates of the nurse leadership master‛s degree program may seek positions such as a charge nurse, director of nursing, chief nursing officer, or a vice president of nursing services.

With a focus on nursing leadership in health care systems, this program prepares students to lead and manage a team of health care providers, specifically including areas of managing a budget, staffing challenges and constraints, conflict resolution and change management.

The nurse leadership master‛s program consists of graduate nursing core courses and leadership courses taken with the Master of Science Leadership (M.S.L.) program. From the graduate nursing core courses, students gain the knowledge, values, and skills needed for advanced generalist practice in an evolving health care system. The nursing portion of the program focuses on the critical analysis of nursing and health care research as well as ethics, policy and finance in health care. The leadership portion of the program provides an overview of leadership styles and the functioning of organizations with an emphasis on communication skills required to establish and maintain effective relationships. Leadership topics include servant leadership, business leadership models and theories, and the exploration of the behavioral forces and relationships that influence organizational effectiveness and change.

This program includes both a capstone class and a practicum. The nurse leadership capstone class provides an opportunity for students to develop an evidence-based practice project proposal that addresses a problem, issue, or concern in professional practice. Students identify a problem amenable to research-based intervention; search literature; propose a solution; and develop a plan to implement the solution, evaluate its outcome(s), and disseminate the findings. The practicum promotes the synthesis and application of knowledge and skills from the nursing core course and the leadership courses. Students identify a mentor and develop a relationship through which they examine the connection between theory and practice.