College	Nursing
Academic Award	Master of Science in Nursing
Credits Required	30 semester credits
Faculty Lead	Merry van Zoeren
CIP Code	51.3801

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 at Northwest University’s Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree is a generalist program that places emphasis on leadership, nursing education, policy development and regulatory practice, program evaluation, nursing research, quality improvement, cross-cultural practice and spiritual appreciation. You will gain specialized experience and knowledge with the design and implementation of a scholarly project aligned with your nursing interests and have opportunities for a unique global experience and educational travel. Graduates of the MSN program are prepared to tackle the changing healthcare landscape as the next generation of change agents, innovators, and leaders.

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 in good standing with an accredited BSN degree.
• Minimum of 18 months part time (½ time) to full time nursing experience. Employer verification required.
• RN nursing practice is current and within two (2) years of application to the MSN Online Program.
• Current and unencumbered RN license in Washington State.

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.
• Buntain School of Nursing 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

A course average grade below 80% (B- or 2.7 grade point average on a 4.0 scale) is unacceptable for progression in the Buntain School of Nursing program and unacceptable for graduation. Graduate students are required to maintain a GPA of 3.00 or better through the nursing coursework. This demonstrates a successful synthesis of the course content. Students who fall below a 3.0 GPA may be allowed to progress in the curriculum cycle but will be placed on academic probation and need to repeat the course prior to entering NURS 5913 Scholarly Project.

Academic Probation

Students who fail to maintain satisfactory academic progress towards graduation are placed on Academic Probation. Probation is a temporary status intended to help focus students’ efforts while concentrating the program’s resources to address and remedy the causes of insufficient academic progress. Probation is not intended as a punitive measure but as a warning and a time for necessary improvement. 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 one of the following reasons:

1. A student fails to maintain a grade of B- or higher in all courses and/or a minimum 3.000 cumulative GPA. In addition, the student must retake the course with less than a B- within a time period determined by the Program Director.
2. A student 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.

Motivational Commitment

Establish a personal Contract of Study, using self-assessment and description of why he/she is pursuing higher education in nursing, the expected outcomes by engaging in an online program at Northwest University, and possible future plans to pursue a masters’ and/or doctoral education.

Identify support systems already in place to aid the learner through a rigorous program of professional studies, back-up plans for stressful periods of greater than anticipated course work/study, and the ultimate support systems that must be considered in personal and/or family emergencies that may require delays or stop-outs in the student’s course of studies.

Engaged-Collaborative Learning

• Actively engage throughout the Online Program via assignments, discussion boards/forums, collaborative projects and papers, and critique of class colleagues’ work.
• Exhibit a high degree of flexibility to maintain optimum involvement with mobile technology, potentially different time zones, self-prepared preceptorships and practice environments, and time-zone-specific deadlines for course assignments.
• Responsively and reliably communicate with a nursing faculty course mentor.

A student will be taken off of probation when:

1. A grade of B- or higher in all courses the following semester and a minimum of a 3.000 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 according to the student’s yearly evaluation as assessed by faculty.

Withdrawal

Students who do not achieve a 3.0 GPA will not be allowed to progress into the final course NURS 5913 Scholarly Project. On occasion 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 that there is opportunity to plan how to best meet their educational goals. In the event that dismissal/withdrawal is recommended by faculty or requested by students, the Buntain School of Nursing Student Affairs Committee will seek to assure that appropriate policies have been followed and that concerns of both student and faculty have been adequately considered.

Practice Experiences

The State of Washington requires a minimum of 100 practice experience hours. The MSN has multiple methods to achieve practice experience hours.

• Each course has a minimum of five practice experience hours related to a relevant curricular concept, and up to five hours are allocated for the MSN Scholarly Project development.
• Some courses offer more than one practice experience opportunity where student may choose which experience is most beneficial for their learning and adaptable to their life schedule.
• The BSON encourages all students to take advantage of one or more faculty-led educational travel experiences: Washington D.C., and/or a global practice site.
• Fees associated with elective educational travel experiences are determined relative to the on-site costs of these experience.  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 / American DataBank (ADB) Requirements and Onboarding

The unique practice experience situations in the Nursing Program may require applicants to submit the following records before entering the practice experience sequence:

1. Health history and physical examination that includes immunization and vaccination documentation and titer levels, conducted and signed by a licensed medical doctor or nurse practitioner:
2. Immunizations

• DPT series and any subsequent Boosters.
• One booster after age 19 must be a Tdap (Tetanus, Diphtheria, and Pertussis) vaccine.
• Hepatitis A series
• Hepatitis B series & proof of positive titer
• MMR series or proof of positive titer
• Polio series
  • Varicella series or proof of positive titer

3. A two-step TB test or TB IGRA done at the time of entry into the program according to instructions provided by the 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 (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) card;
5. A national background check is required at the applicant’s expense. A signed permission form (supplied in the application packet) allowing the Buntain School of Nursing and any clinical site to order a criminal background check. For example, Washington State Patrol Criminal Background Check.

• Background checks must indicate no criminal history.

6. Annual flu immunization is required each year to be eligible to participate in practice experiences
7. Proof of health insurance for personal costs of health care; and,
8. A valid driver’s license

Scholarly Project

The MSN Scholarly Project is completed and approved prior to graduation. There is a choice of two approaches:

1. Data collection to elucidate aspects of a phenomenon and generate knowledge
2. Pilot project to evaluate efficacy of a novel intervention or the transfer of an innovation from one context to another

Program administrators and a faculty mentor will continue to provide guidance and support in helping the student to assume responsibility for his or her success with the MSN Scholarly Project.