Courses
This course examines the empirical foundation of advanced nursing practice, analyzing nursing theories, their concepts, and the applicability to observe clinical nursing. Focus will be placed on development of critical thinking skills in analyzing extant practice for theory implications. Students will examine various frameworks for the development, definition, analysis, and synthesis of theories and concepts, as well as assessing theory applications through direct clinical observation. Focus will be placed on development and analysis of selected concepts.
This course provides an in-depth examination of qualitative study designs and methods through a combination of theoretical discussion and hands-on practical experience. Topics include paradigm distinctions, theoretical perspectives, designs and methods, critique of research reports, and ethical issues in qualitative research.
Building upon the foundations provided in the quantitative and qualitative research method courses, in this course students examine advanced methods and frameworks frequently used in studying health policy, health services research problems and comparative effectiveness research. In addition to a critical review of the methods, the course examines the relationship among science, policy and healthcare delivery, and identifies critical questions shaping the future policy research agenda.
The course will explore the methods used to study clinical and other phenomena. Included will be discussion of issues related to instrumentation, both qualitative and quantitative, access to patient populations including clinical trials, validity, reliability, and ethical aspects of research.
This course provides a foundation for quantitative research methods and design. Research process topics examined include: appraisal of the quality of existing evidence; identification of gaps in the literature; formulation of researchable questions and testable hypotheses; types of research variables; sampling designs and power analyses; and the uses, strengths, and weaknesses of various experimental and quasi-experimental research designs.
This foundational course will examine the philosophy of nursing knowledge including foundations of nursing theory, concept development, and its application to research. Students will explore approaches to the analysis and development of concepts and the application of nursing concepts and frameworks to clinical practice and research. Ideas, assumptions, events, people, and writings are examined for their influence, inter-relationships, and significance to nursing. Types of reasoning will be evaluated within the context of nursing and health. Major theories, frameworks, and concepts of nursing and health and their implication for research will be discussed. The focus of the course will be on development of critical thinking skills in analyzing key elements of philosophies, concepts, and conceptual frameworks.
In this foundational course students will study the links between theory and the psychosocial and biophysical measures used in nursing research. Students will employ the principles of classical test theory and item response theory to evaluate the reliability and validity of measurement. Application of computational techniques will be covered in the lab portion of the course. Course topics include types and uses of measures, item/scale development and validation, survey methods, reporting for publication, and the relationships between measurement and research ethics, cultural competency, and health disparities.
This foundational course will examine the philosophy of nursing knowledge including foundations of nursing theory; concept development; and its application to research. Students will explore approaches to the analysis and development of concepts and the application of nursing concepts and frameworks to clinical practice and research. Ideas, assumptions, events, people, and writings are examined for their influence, inter-relationships and significance to nursing. Types of reasoning will be evaluated within the context of nursing and health. Major theories, frameworks and concepts of nursing and health, and their implication for research will be discussed. The focus of the course will be on development of critical thinking skills in analyzing key elements of philosophies, concepts and conceptual frameworks.
In this foundational course students will study the links between theory and the psychosocial and biophysical measures used in nursing research. Students will employ the principles of classical test theory and item response theory to evaluate the reliability and validity of measurement. Application of computational techniques will be covered in the lab portion of the course. Course topics include types and uses of measures, item/scale development and validation, survey methods, reporting for publication, and the relationships between measurement and research ethics, cultural competency, and health disparities.
Building upon the foundational knowledge acquired in the quantitative and qualitative research method courses, this course will introduce advanced research methods in nursing research. It explores three pivotal areas in nursing research: Health Services Research, Omics Research, and Data Science Research. Students will learn theoretical principles or frameworks for the three advanced methods, and critically review the commonly used research methods. Additionally, the course examines the interplay between science, policy, and healthcare delivery and identifies critical questions shaping the future policy research agenda.
This one year palliative and end of life care clinical fellowship will provide the post-clinical DNP graduate with a comprehensive experience in clinical practice across sites. Fellows will rotate through inpatient, long term, community and home care settings where the focus will be pain and symptom management, quality of life, and bereavement care. A multidisciplinary team under the direction of CUSON faculty will integrate education, research, and innovative clinical programs into the delivery of palliative and end of life care for adult patients and their families. Fellows must commit to a minimum of two days per week in the clinical setting and classroom.
This course is designed to provide the students with the knowledge to apply the best available evidence to clinical practice problems and the information technology to support evidence-based practice. Course content includes critical appraisal skills to determine the quality of the research for usability in practice, to determine if the findings have applicability in a specific practice, and what the findings mean for the patient. Overview of informatics topics of most relevance to evidence-based practice will be presented. Topics include: standardized clinical terminology; health care standards; electronic health records; retrieval and critical analysis of digital data, information, and knowledge; clinical decision making; and decision support including decision analysis.
No longer offered. Please see N9405. Formerly known as Practice Management and Information.
This course is designed to provide the student with the knowledge and skills necessary to serve as a member and lead interdisciplinary groups in organizational assessment to identify systems issues and facilitate organization-wide changes in practice delivery utilizing quality improvement strategies. Course content focusses on understanding systems concepts and thinking to achieve results in complex health care delivery systems. Frameworks, approaches, and tools that foster critical thinking are examined as mechanisms to formulate vital questions, gather and assess relevant information, develop well-reasoned conclusions, test conclusions against relevant standards, compare conclusions with alternative systems of thought, and communicate effectively throughout the process.
This course is designed to provide the student with the knowledge to apply the best available evidence to resolve clinical practice problems and to use information technology to support evidence-based practice. Course content includes critical appraisal skills to determine the quality of the research fro usability in practice, to determine if the findings have applicability in a specific practice and what the findings mean for the patient. Overview of informatics topics of most relevance to evidence-based practice will be presented. Topics include: standardized clinical terminology; health care standards; electronic health records; retrieval and critical analysis of digital data, information, and knowledge; clinical decision making and decision support including decision analysis.
This course is designed to provide the student with the knowledge and skills regarding the uses of information technology to support evidence-based practice. The course will provide an overview of informatics topics of most relevance to evidence-based practice including: computer systems and system development; standardized clinical terminology; informatics standards; electronic health records; retrieval and critical analysis of digital data, information, and knowledge; clinical decision making; decision support; decision analysis; shared decision making; and computer aided instruction.
Utilizing a symptom-based approach, this course will examine the diagnosis and management of patients with complex diagnoses and comorbid conditions in the context of family, community and culture. The course will emphasize principles of primary care, including "provision of integrated and accessible health care services" (IOM, 1996). The accountability and ethical implications in the provision of comprehensive care to a population of ambulatory patients will be emphasized. Cultural diversity, epidemiology, differing health belief models, and alternative therapies will be explored as an integral part of primary care.
This practicum is a clinical field experience designed to provide the opportunity for students to apply the knowledge of diagnosis and management of ambulatory patients with complex diagnoses and comorbid conditions in the context of family, community and culture. The clinical experience will emphasize principles of primary care including integration, accessibility, accountability and ethical decision making. Sites for this clinical experience will include hospital based clinics, ambulatory centers and private offices.
Using symptom-based case studies, the seminar format will encourage students to integrate knowledge of clinical and scientific methodology, pathophysiology, principles of practice management, evidence-based practice, and ethical decision-making to determine differential diagnoses, therapeutic interventions, and coordinated patient management. The discussion will promote the synthesis of all factors that have some bearing on and provide a rationale for clinical decision-making.
Utilizing a symptom-based approach this course will examine the diagnosis and management of patients with complex diagnoses and/or comorbid conditions who present with acute changes in health status requiring interventions available only in an acute care setting. Discussion will focus on sophisticated evaluation techniques, appropriate clinical monitoring of vital functions, and the therapeutic interventions available in the acute care setting. The accountability and ethical implications in the facilitation and coordination of comprehensive care for a population of acutely ill patients will be emphasized. Transitioning the patient to the appropriate level of care following resolution of the acute illness will be discussed
This required seminar is designed to further develop the role of advanced practice DNP students through case presentations. Using the CUSON DNP Competencies in Comprehensive Care as the framework, students will analyze clinical decision-making and utilizing evidence for best clinical practices.
This clinical is designed to provide students the opportunity to manage patients in a specialty-care or global health care setting.
This course will focus on persons who are unable to function independently due to age related alteration in mental and physical status, developmental, perceptual and physical disability and chronic, degenerative illness. Diagnosis and management of this population of patients within the context of hospice care, home care, skilled nursing facilities, rehabilitation centers, group homes, day care facilities and other health related assisted living facilities will be presented. The impact of altered clinical presentation and multiple coexisting problems on diagnosis, management, and ethical decision making will be discussed.
An in-depth understanding of the complexity of chronic illness management will be emphasized. Content will include discussion of current and innovative models of care delivery, issues impacting patients, caregivers and advanced practice nurses, care systems that enhance outcomes, and use of an interdisciplinary approach to chronic illness management for persons across the lifespan.
The purpose of this course is to critically analyze healthcare policy in the US. Included is a focus on the advanced practice nurse role in shaping and influencing policy through advocacy and leadership to improve patient outcomes.
Seminar aimed at the continued refinement of critical thinking associated with a focused area of clinical nursing. The framework of the seminar will be the health care of vulnerable populations.
Seminar designed to facilitate the application of critical thinking, concept development and inquiry to health-related questions about specific populations, with an emphasis on populations considered vulnerable to poor health outcomes.
Using the format of a research seminar highlighting research “challenges” of the DNSc faculty , this course is designed to strengthen the student’s ability to integrate and synthesize knowledge in statistics and nursing research methodologies, and to apply this integrated knowledge to common problems in study design and data analysis.
The student works with a faculty member or other scientist who is conducting a research project. The specific nature of the experience depends on the nature and stage of the research, but might include search and review of relevant literature, data collection, data analysis and/or grant preparation.
This seminar is designed to strengthen the student’s ability to synthesize information gained in doctoral coursework and to apply this integrated knowledge to common challenges in the evaluation of a body of work relevant to nursing scholarship. The content is designed to assist in codifying the student’s area of dissertation interest, and serve as the basis for the early chapters of the dissertation that provide a critical literature review and rationale for aims, and hypotheses of the proposed work.
The student works under the guidance of a faculty member to study in depth a topic related to the development of nursing science. Specific objectives and requirements are negotiated individually. The course may be repeated more than once provided different faculty members supervise the learning experience.
This colloquium is designed for the doctoral student in the clinical nursing research specialty. Seminars will include an examination of current theory, research findings and issues regarding an area of clinical practice identified by the student. Each student will pursue in-depth study of a clinical phenomenon in the context of clinical research. Conceptual and empirical issues and the applicable theoretical underpinnings will be explored fully. The primary outcome of the colloquium is to prepare effective leaders in clinical practice, using principles of change, leadership, and the scientific literature as the foundations.
This course provides the doctoral student with an opportunity for the practical application of leadership and health policy skills at a high level within a health or health-related organization. This experience should be planned with the advisor and course director in advance of the semester in which the student registers in order to be of maximum benefit.
This course explores the current parameters of genomics [beyond genetics] as is influences new conceptualizations of health and illness. Using a case discussion approach, clinical issues of genetic testing, genetic exceptionalism, individualized risk assessments and predictions are explored throughout the life span.
This course is designed to facilitate the contribution of nursing science to improved practice and health policy. The course consists of two major components: (1) Seminars on the translation of scholarly evidence to clinical practice, health policy and health care delivery, and (2) Field work in which each student conducts a specific translational project in collaboration with a mentor with leadership responsibilities in a clinical or policy organization. In each seminar, policy and clinical questions will be discussed as they impact cost, access and quality of care, especially for vulnerable populations and as they present challenges to leadership at all levels of decision-making, including state and national government. Students will be expected to draw from their field work for discussions and presentations and to apply content from class into their work products. The selected field work is expected to be related to the student’s research or practice interests and require development of a policy-related product of mutual value to the student and the setting.
This course is intended to provide a hands-on introduction to delivering data visualizations to serve as a critical lens through which individual and population level health can be examined. The proposed course will combine concepts and theory in data visualization and exploration and practice to enable the student to gain the necessary knowledge to use graphics and statistics to explore the data, find and construct a narrative, and share findings in ways colleagues and decision-makes can readily understand and act upon.
The course is intended to provide a hands‐on introduction to delivering data visualizations to serve as a critical lens through which individual and population level health can be examined. The course will combine concepts and theory in data visualization and exploration and practice to prepare the learner to begin using graphics and statistics to explore data, find and construct a narrative, and share findings in ways colleagues and decision-makers can readily understand and act upon. Topics may include: (a) principles of human perception and attention that inform visualization design; (b) The use of visualization to explore data and discover a narrative; (c) the use of visualization to communicate effectively with others; 4) the development of practical skills, including preparing datasets and applying programing language to analyze data and produce visualizations.
Interaction with practitioners/guest speakers is an integral part of this course as a way for students to understand real data and information challenges. Concept lectures and case studies concentrate on learning to scope and manage complex data science projects. Lab work will focus on gaining competency with data science/visualization tools and techniques (e.g., Jupyter Notebook, R programming language) applied to an integrated health-relevant data set.
This course will explore the broadly defined principles of ethics and the legal and ethical implications for practice and research. Case studies will be used to illustrate how the principles of ethics can guide the decision making process when clinical research and practice management dilemmas arise. Emphasis is placed on the ethical and legal issues in practice, scholarly work and research. Content will include the following: professional interactions, scientific integrity and research ethics, gender issues, conflict of interest, genetic screening and diagnostic testing, reproductive technology, vulnerable populations, and end-of-life issues.
This course provides students with specialization in Health Policy, a Practicum experience developing and analyzing health policy in an organization relevant tot the student's clinical practice specialty.
This course addresses the application of epidemiology and environmental approaches to inform the clinical practice of health care of individuals. An understanding of health sciences based on groups of people, including environmental health, occupational health, and some aspects of genetics, can orient the practitioner with an individual patient. These external influences are modified through social, cultural, and behavioral factors. Addressing these factors should help to anticipate and improve patient outcomes.
The residency focuses on the delivery of fully accountable scope, health care across the continuum of sites and patient needs. This residency requires students to apply the knowledge of: 1) diagnosis and management of ambulatory patients with complex diagnoses and comorbid conditions in the context of family, community and culture, 2) diagnosis and management of patients requiring interventions available only in an acute care setting and 3) diagnosis and management of patients who are unable to function independently due to age alterations and/or deficits in mental or physical status, developmental, perceptual and physical disability and chronic, degenerative illness. Sites include hospital based clinics, ambulatory centers, private offices, emergency rooms, walk-in clinics and acute/critical care units, labor and delivery suites in the hospital facilities and settings which provide hospice care, supportive care, home care, nursing home care, rehabilitative care, technologically dependent care and assisted living services. The DNP student will demonstrate an integration of comprehensive assessment, advanced differential diagnosis, therapeutic intervention and evaluation of care for patients and synthesis of evidence-based practice with patients with a variety of conditions. In this context, the DNP student will organize and develop a professional portfolio.
The DNP student will complete the scholarly project requirement while enrolled in this course. The student will develop a poster, presentation, manuscript or other product that will need to be peer reviewed and accepted. Documentation of the product being accepted through peer review is required and should be uploaded into the student portfolio along with the final product. Dissemination of the scholarly project is required, for example, through presentation or publication. The DNP student will work alone or in a group of up to three people. This will be the final requirement for their professional portfolio.
The course is intended for Doctor of Nursing Practice students who have not completed all clinical requirements, but are engaged in relevant clinical activities that are associated with the required course sequence.
The DNP Transition to Practice course provides the student an opportunity to prepare for the final semester DNP intensive clinical experience. The student will establish a clinical practice site in which they can demonstrate fully accountable patient care delivery and attainment of the CUSON DNP Competencies for Comprehensive Patient Care.
This course will examine clinical reasoning and utilization of evidence for best clinical practice in the provision of integrated accessible health care services across clinical settings to patients who present with ambiguous symptoms, multiple diagnoses and or comorbid conditions in the context of family, community and culture. Discussion will focus on sophisticated evaluation techniques, appropriate clinical monitoring, and therapeutic interventions including alternative therapies. Transitioning patients to the appropriate level of care following resolution of acute illness will be discussed. Cultural diversity, epidemiology, differing health belief models, accountability, shared decision making, and ethical dilemmas that arise in the facilitation and coordination of comprehensive care for a population of ambulatory and acutely ill patients will be emphasized.
This course will examine clinical reasoning and utilization of evidence for best clinical practice in the provision of integrated accessible health care services across clinical settings to patients who present with ambiguous symptoms, multiple diagnoses and or comorbid conditions in the context of family, community and culture. Discussion will focus on sophisticated evaluation techniques, appropriate clinical monitoring, and therapeutic interventions including alternative therapies. Transitioning patients to the appropriate level of care following resolution of acute illness will be discussed. Cultural diversity, epidemiology, differing health belief models, accountability, shared decision making, and ethical dilemmas that arise in the facilitation and coordination of comprehensive care for a population of ambulatory and acutely ill patients will be emphasized.
This course will examine clinical reasoning and utilization of evidence for best clinical practice in the provision of integrated accessible health care services across clinical settings to patients who present with ambiguous symptoms, multiple diagnoses and or comorbid conditions in the context of family, community and culture. Discussion will focus on sophisticated evaluation techniques, appropriate clinical monitoring, and therapeutic interventions including alternative therapies. Transitioning patients to the appropriate level of care following resolution of acute illness will be discussed. Cultural diversity, epidemiology, differing health belief models, accountability, shared decision making, and ethical dilemmas that arise in the facilitation and coordination of comprehensive care for a population of ambulatory and acutely ill patients will be emphasized.
This practicum is a clinical field experience designed to provide the opportunity for students to apply knowledge of the diagnosis and management of patients with complex diagnoses and/or comorbid conditions who present with complex diagnoses and comorbid and chronic conditions in the context of family, community and culture and patients with acute changes in health status requiring interventions available only in an acute care setting. The clinical experience will emphasize principles of primary care including integration, accessibility, accountability, and ethical decision making. Clinical sites include hospital based clinics, ambulatory centers, private offices, the emergency room, acute/critical care units in the hospital setting and settings that provide hospice care, home care, nursing home care, rehabilitative care and assisted living services.