Master of Science in Nursing with a specialization in Informatics
Program Description:
The mission of the Aspen University School of Nursing and Health Sciences is to enhance the health and quality of life for individuals, families, and communities at local, state, and national levels through excellence in teaching, scholarship and practice.
The Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program prepares nurses to assume leadership roles in management, education, forensics, public health, informatics and clinical practice within a diverse society and across a spectrum of healthcare settings. Theory courses combine the basic foundation of traditional education in a convenient distance-learning format, enabling practicing nurses to meet their academic, professional, and personal goals. Practicum courses are performed in a clinical setting, allowing students to apply learned concepts under the direct supervision of a Master-degreed RN preceptor.
The nursing informatics specialty track is designed for nurses who want to solve nursing problems with computers. Nursing informatics gives students the opportunity to create projects about which they are passionate and work with computer science majors to develop computer-based solutions to common nursing issues. The graduate will learn the vocabulary and training used by computer science majors as well as advanced nursing informatics skills, in order to work in a collaborative team as a nurse informaticist.
Degree Requirements: 36 Credits, including 120 practicum hours
Program Learning Goals:
It is intended that Graduates of the Aspen University Master of Science in Nursing with a specialization in Informatics program will learn or be able to do the following:
- Background for Practice from Sciences and Humanities: Integrates scientific findings from nursing, biopsychosocial fields, genetics, public health, quality improvement, and organizational sciences for the continual improvement of nursing care across diverse settings.
- Organizational and Systems Leadership: Demonstrates leadership skills that emphasize ethical and critical decision making, effective working relationships, and a systems perspective because organizational and systems leadership are critical to the promotion of high quality and safe patient care.
- Quality Improvement and Safety: Articulates methods, tools, performance measures, and standards related to quality, and applies quality principles within an organization.
- Translating and Integrating Scholarship into Practice: Applies research outcomes within the practice setting, resolves complex practice problems, works as a change agent, and disseminates results.
- Informatics and Healthcare Technologies: Using patient-care technologies, delivers and enhances care and using communication technologies, integrates and coordinates care.
- Health Policy and Advocacy: Intervenes at the system level through the policy development process and employs advocacy strategies to influence health and health care.
- Interprofessional Collaboration for Improving Patient and Population Health Outcomes: As a member and leader of interprofessional teams, communicates, collaborates, and consults with other health professionals to manage and coordinate care.
- Clinical Prevention and Population Health for Improving Health: Applies and integrates broad, organizational, client-centered, and culturally appropriate concepts in the planning, delivery, management, and evaluation of evidence-based clinical prevention and population care and services to individuals, families, and aggregates/identified populations.
- Master’s-Level Nursing Practice: Integrates the advanced level of understanding of nursing and relevant sciences with nursing practice to create nursing practice interventions.
- Informatics: Apply advanced-level theoretical, research-based, scientific, and clinical nursing informatics knowledge through nursing care planning and practice in advancing health promotion, utilization of data and advanced information management systems, internet and technology.
Academic Schedule
Courses:
| N502 | Health Care Systems | 3 |
| N537 | Health Care Informatics | 3 |
| N512 | Diverse Populations & Health Care | 3 |
| N520 | Legal and Ethical Issues in Health Care | 3 |
| N542 | Health Care Finance and Economics | 3 |
| CIS515 | Management of Information Systems | 3 |
| CIS525 | Information Systems Strategic Planning | 3 |
| CIS605 | Customers, Markets, and Technology | 3 |
| N538 | Advanced Health Care Informatics | 3 |
| N508 | Theory and Research | 3 |
| N586IN | Informatics Nursing Practicum | 3 |
| N599 | Nursing Capstone | 3 |