School	Nursing
Academic Award	Master of Science in Nursing
Credits Required	36 semester credits
CIP Code	51.3801

Degree Requirements

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Mark and Huldah Buntain School of Nursing

Mission Statement: The Buntain School of Nursing of Northwest University prepares graduates to answer their call to serve God throughout the world and lead others by using their professional expertise as nurses.

The Buntain School of Nursing’s Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree emphasizes leadership, nursing education, policy development and regulatory practice, program evaluation, nursing research, quality improvement, cross-cultural practice and spiritual appreciation. Students will gain specialized experience and knowledge with the design and implementation of a scholarly project.  There is also the opportunity for a unique global and educational travel experience and. Graduates of the MSN program are prepared to tackle the changing healthcare landscape as the next generation of change agents, innovators, and leaders.

NOTICE: Admission for the Online RN-MSN program is suspended as of October 2023

Program Learning Outcomes

Scholarly Inquiry

1. Research Methodology: Formulate research questions and hypotheses and determine appropriate research methods that support reliable findings and valid conclusions.
2. Informatics as a Lens: Search available data sets for trends and associations that guide the formulation of effective and efficient health care initiatives.
3. Focused Clinical Exploration: Demonstrate clinical competence rooted in study of the assessment, physiology, pathophysiology, research, and clinical guidelines of a nursing clinical area of focus.

Servant Leadership

4. Ethical Debate: Write and provide a scholarly defense for a set of personal ethical and spiritual guidelines for servant leadership in an array of settings and moral dilemmas.
5. Cultural Humility: Integrate cultural understanding and sensitivity into health communications, assessments, interventions, programs, and policy in order to lead diverse groups toward the achievement of optimal health outcomes.
6. Educational Expertise: Lead others toward wellness and social good through the employment of curriculum development and pedagogical approaches that are sensitive to the developmental, cultural, and motivational characteristics of the target audience.
7. Policy and Advocacy: Conceptualize and lead efforts to enhance health-related, public policy.

Outcome Orientation

8. Quality and Safety Improvement: Identify opportunities for quality improvement, safety promotion, and risk management and propose systematic approaches to implement continuous quality improvement efforts.
9. Evidence-based Practice: Be adept at finding evidence and applying research recommendations that produce healthy outcomes.

Innovation

10. Research Utilization: Apply research recommendations to health care delivery situations and subsequent research agendas. 
11. Concept adaptation: Assess the applicability of innovations from different settings and disciplines to current health care delivery opportunities and propose means by which to adapt innovations to new health care settings.
12. Technology Utilization:  Apply and evaluate the efficacy of technology to the achievement of health goals.

Admission Requirements

All students complete an application to Northwest University as part of the admission requirements to the Buntain School of Nursing (BSON).

• Graduate of an accredited Baccalaureate Degree in Nursing program.
• Clinical RN nursing practice is current within two (2) years of application to the MSN Online Program.
• Current and unencumbered RN license in Washington, Oregon, Montana, or Alaska.

Transfer Credits

• All RNs are required to have formal nursing and post high school level education transcripts evaluated by NU transcript evaluation services to determine acceptable transfer credits.
• Students may transfer a successfully completed 3-semester credit or equivalent college level course in statistics from an accredited institution towards their degree requirements (MATH 1313 Introduction to Statistics is available through NU Online courses).

Progression

Students who do not achieve an 80% (B- or 2.70) in each nursing course and an overall 3.00 GPA throughout the sequence of nursing courses may progress but are placed on academic probation. Prior to entering NURS 5913, all courses with a grade less than a B- (2.7) must be repeated.

Academic Probation

Students who fail to maintain satisfactory academic progress towards graduation are placed on academic probation. Probation is a temporary status. Academic probation places a student under special supervision for the purpose of providing opportunity for academic improvement. This step is taken when a student’s grade point average falls below a 3.0 level. Students are required to have a 3.0 cumulative GPA for graduation and must pass all courses with at least a B-. When a probationary student’s cumulative GPA rises above these minimum levels, they are removed from probation. Probation, however, could lead to further academic penalties and financial aid restrictions as deemed necessary by the program or federal guidelines.

A student may be placed on probation for any of the following reasons:

1. Fails to maintain a grade of B- (2.7) or higher in all courses or a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA. 
2. Fails to meet the criteria of professional behavioral standards, including, but not limited to: emotional stability, interpersonal skills, maturity, and ethical conduct.

Program administrators and faculty will continue to provide guidance and support in helping the student to assume responsibility for his or her academic success.

A student will be taken off of probation when:

1. A grade of B- (2.7) or higher in all courses the following semester and a minimum of a 3.0 cumulative GPA are achieved.
2. The student meets the criteria of professional behavioral standards, including, but not limited to: emotional stability, interpersonal skills, maturity, and ethical conduct. 

Withdrawal

Students who do not achieve a 3.0 GPA are not allowed to progress into the final course, NURS 5913 Scholarly Project. Occasionally students are faced with major health problems or changes in personal circumstances that make progression in the nursing program difficult. Students are encouraged to seek faculty counsel or advice early so there is opportunity to plan how to best meet their educational goals. If dismissal or withdrawal is recommended by faculty or requested by students, the Student Affairs Committee assures appropriate policies are followed and concerns of student and faculty are considered.

Practice Experiences

The MSN program includes 230 practice experience hours that are completed in various immersive activities with the guidance of preceptors, mentors, or faculty. Practice experiences may be completed near the student’s area of residence.

• Practice experience hours are integrated in eight of the twelve MSN courses.
• Some courses offer more than one practice experience opportunity where students may choose the experience most beneficial for their learning and adaptable to their life schedule.
• Students are encouraged to take advantage of the optional faculty-led cross-cultural educational experience.
• Fees associated with elective educational travel experiences are determined relative to the on-site costs of these experiences. Students make their own travel arrangements and payments in order to arrive and depart from a designated city in a timeframe enabling students to participate in all faculty-led educational experiences.

Additional Practice Experience Requirements

Practice experiences in the nursing program require applicants to submit the following records to an online data collection service.

1. Health history and physical examination that includes immunization and vaccination documentation and titer levels, conducted and signed by a licensed healthcare practitioner
2. Immunizations

• DPT series and any subsequent boosters
  • One booster after age 19 must be a Tdap (Tetanus, Diphtheria, and Pertussis) vaccine
• Hepatitis B series & proof of positive titer
• MMR series or proof of positive titer
• Varicella series or proof of positive titer
• Influenza (annual requirement)
• COVID-19 

3. A two-step TB test or TB IGRA done at the time of entry into the program according to instructions provided by the Buntain School of Nursing.

• Documentation of an annual TB screening is conducted each year to demonstrate eligibility to participate in practice experiences

4. Current American Heart Association (AHA) provider-level CPR card
5. A national background check, OIG, GSA, and Washington State WATCH are required. Students seeking admission to the nursing program must be aware a record of criminal conviction may impact admission. Students should discuss this matter with the dean before making final application to the nursing program. Any criminal incidences occurring during the nursing program must be reviewed immediately with the dean.
6. Medical clearance form
7. Proof of health insurance
8. Proof of malpractice insurance
9. Active and unencumbered RN license
10. Valid drivers license
11. The following records are optional but may be required if the student chooses to participate in international travel as part of NURS 5383.
    1. Hepatitis A series
    2. Polio series (depending on location of the cross-cultural experience)
    3. A current and valid passport 
12. Students may be required to undergo drug screening or fingerprinting for selected agencies as a prerequisite to clinical practice experiences. It is the student’s responsibility to pay for this screening.

Scholarly Project

A key outcome of the MSN program is the completion of a scholarly project over the course of six semesters. The scholarly project requires a systematic review and analysis of the literature on a topic of relevance to the student’s intended specialty focus as an advanced practice nurse. Examples of acceptable scholarly project are a quality improvement project, an educational intervention project, assessment of a curriculum gap and a proposed intervention, or program or educational evaluation project.