Nursing Leadership Certificate

This course provides evidence-based knowledge and skills to maximize the development of one’s leadership potential in evolving and challenging health care systems. Discussion and clinical application will focus on supporting students to develop their ability to be collaborative, knowledge based decision makers and facilitators in the context of interdisciplinary teams. Student study foundational content such as the Institute of Medicine’s Future of Nursing report, ACA, value based purchasing and critical concepts of quality metrics. The intent of this course is to explore the many facets of leadership and health care improvement, and to examine strategies that will develop nurse leaders to improve outcomes and facilitate the design of high-performing clinical settings that better serve patients, families, staff and the organization. Students have a 14 hours of computer lab instruction to work with data sets, develop graphs, pivot tables and assess data trends. (42 theory hours).

This course prepares the graduate nursing student to identify practice problems and critique current research for relevance and application to practice. An overview of theory is presented as a vehicle for understanding nursing research. Basic concepts of qualitative and quantitative research methods will be examined in order to plan and evaluate a practice change. Using an evidence-based approach, students will identify a clinical problem to address a specific population or setting, consider ethical issues, and develop a proposal for implementation. Students will use reflection in the evaluation of nursing knowledge.

Custom designed seminar based on clinical partner input. Topics may include: Value Based Purchasing, finances, regulatory issues, conflict management and coaching. Nurses will learn key leadership skills through seminars with healthcare leaders, group discussions and reflections.