The purpose of graduate education at the PhD level is to prepare nurse scientists to assume roles as health care researchers, faculty, and health care administrators with an emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention in under-served and rural populations.
The purpose of graduate education at the Master’s level in nursing is to prepare professional leaders with specialized knowledge and skills to meet the nation’s needs in clinical practice, nursing administration, and nursing education. The aim of the program is to prepare nurses to practice at an advanced level in nursing as a nurse educator, administrator, or clinician which includes clinical nurse leader. Achievement of this aim includes study in related fields and the use of research in the examination of nursing problems.
NOTE: The College of Nursing has agreements with the University of Missouri-Kansas City for Neonatal Nurse Practitioner courses and the University of Missouri-Columbia for Family Mental Health Nurse Practitioner courses. Students in these specializations receive their degree from SDSU.
Student Outcomes
The graduate of the Master of Science in Nursing program will:
- Incorporate knowledge and theories from nursing and other supportive disciplines into advanced nursing practice.
- Display competence within the legal scope of practice for the chosen specialization.
- Evaluate and utilize research within advanced practice nursing.
- Integrate cultural learning into nursing practice to effectively tailor health care to the diverse lifeways of clients.
- Seek to decrease health disparities among populations by addressing socioeconmic-political-cultural determinants of health.
- Use leadership, administration, and teaching strategies to improve nursing practice and health care delivery.
- Assume accountability to influence health policy, improve health care delivery, address the diversity of health care needs, and advance the nursing profession.
- Contribute to the advancement of the science of nursing serving rural and underserved populations.
The graduate of Doctor of Nursing Practice will:
- Analyze significant practice issues with the theoretical and scientific underpinnings of knowledge-based practice.
- Employ advanced clinical judgement to assess, design, deliver, and evaluate evidence-based care of individuals in complex health and illness situations.
- Apply a broad system perspective to design, implement, evaluate culturally congrument policies and practices to improve care for a diverse population.
- Lead health care inter-professional and intra-professional teams to transform care.
- Initiate ethically sound practice changes to address complex interwoven organization, population, fiscal and policy trends.
- Demonstrate proficiency in the use of information technology to improve health care within systems.
- Implement evidence-based clinical prevention and health promotion activities to improve the health of populations.
The PhD program will educate nurse scientists in academic, research, practice, and policy issues in urban, rural, frontier, and reservation areas. At completion of the program the graduate will demonstrate the following competencies:
- Discovery and dissseminate knowledge relevant to the discipline of nursing with a focus on health promotion and disease prevention in underserved and rural populations.
- Provide leadership for increasingly complex roles in nursing research, practice and education and/or health care organizations.
- Develop theoretical frameworks of phenomena related to nursing science.
- Provide leadership for the analysis and resolution of ethical health care issues in an interdisciplinary context.
- Integrate cultural learning into nursing practice to effectively tailor health care to the diverse lifeways of clients.
- Seek to decrease health disparities among populations by addressing socioeconomic-political-cultural determinants of health.
- Contribute to the advancement of the science of nursing serving rural and underserved populations.
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