Nursing Education

The primary purpose of the MS in Nursing Education is to prepare registered nurses for successful careers in a variety of academic and service settings. Using an instructional and outcomes assessment model, the program provides a flexible means for registered nurses, including those from diverse and underserved populations, to obtain a master's degree.
The curriculum includes graduate core and specialty courses designed to prepare registered nurses to function in the role of nurse educator in an academic or service setting. The program is designed to build on previous knowledge, education, and experience and serves as a foundation for doctoral study. The pursuit of lifelong learning, which is essential for practice in the profession, is one of the tenets of Excelsior College.
The faculty believes that nurses prepared at the master's level use specialty knowledge to engage in clinical reasoning and the decision-making process to enhance nursing practice. Graduates of master's programs are able to assess, analyze, plan, implement, and evaluate individual/organizational outcomes. As leaders, graduates of master's programs assume roles that foster team building, create partnerships and promote collaboration within nursing and across disciplines. Master's prepared nurses use knowledge from nursing and other disciplines to influence health policy, foster staff performance and encourage systems thinking. Nurses prepared at this level use research strategies to create a spirit of inquiry within an environment of care to promote student and staff development and optimize care.
Graduate nursing education provides a broad background in nursing theory as well as theory from other disciplines which inform nursing, and which nursing, in turn, informs. Research methodology and application, cultural competence, group process, ethical decision making and values clarification, and a focus on health promotion are essential elements of master's level education. 

1. Articulates the role of the master's prepared nurse within the philosophical, ethical, and theoretical framework of nursing science.
2. Uses knowledge and analytical skills to appraise the contextual environment of nursing education in order to inform and influence decision making.
3. Applies knowledge and skills from multiple disciplines in designing curricula and formatting program outcomes.
4. Establishes collaborative partnerships with diverse constituencies to pursue education related goals and influence change.
5. Creates an educational environment that facilitates student learning and achieves desired outcomes.
6. Assumes a leadership role in the educational organization to shape and implement change.
7. Uses persuasive communication strategies with multiple stakeholders to address professional and educational system issues and achieve goals.
8. Develops approaches to the educational environment that address the cultural, ethical, legal, social, economic and political requirements of diverse populations and stakeholders and impact the educator role.
9. Incorporates the scope of practice, professional standards and specialty knowledge to implement the role of the master's prepared nurse in a variety of educational settings.
10. Develops evidence-based practice using the research process and effectively engages in scholarship.
11. Takes responsibility for lifelong learning, acts as a role model, maintains competence, and makes contributions to the profession.
12. Uses multiple strategies to assess and evaluate learning in various settings.

Excelsior College’s Graduate Nursing program uses rubrics to assess academic achievement. Each outcome is directly assessed during the final course requirement; the Capstone.  The components of the Capstone including a project, an online seminar, and a leadership retreat presentation are designed to have students apply their knowledge, skills, and behaviors to real-life situations.  Faculty teams review the students’ work using criterion-referenced rubrics.  Students must achieve a minimal grade of B for each component of the Capstone to be successful.   The MS in Nursing program has recently changed their assessment methods.  Results in the new format are limited to two terms: March 2009 and November 2009.  The distribution of capstone grades in those two terms is as follows:  100% A (18), 0% B (0), 0% C or below (0).

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