The Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) with an emphasis in administration prepares nurses for leadership roles in today's rapidly changing healthcare delivery systems. The program focuses on the critical analysis of nursing and health care research as well as ethics, management, policy and finance in healthcare. This program is designed for BSN-prepared registered nurses who want to advance their career and move into management roles. Students learn to improve their communication, creative problem-solving and decision-making skills.

Students can select from the following concentrations:

Student Learning Outcomes

The Bay Path University MSN will incorporate the AACN Education Standards outlined by the MSN Essentials to provide a solid foundation and consistent guide for knowledge development (AACN, 2006) in order to qualify for CCNE accreditation.  These Standards will also serve as part of the assessment plan to determine the attainment of student learning outcomes.

The nine MSN Essentials listed below delineate the knowledge and skills that all nurses prepared in master’s nursing programs require according to the AACN.

1. Essential I: Background for Practice from Sciences and Humanities
   Recognizes that the master’s-prepared nurse integrates scientific findings from nursing, biopsychosocial fields, genetics, public health, quality improvement, and organizational sciences for the continual improvement of nursing care across diverse settings
2. Essential II: Organizational and Systems Leadership
   Recognizes that organizational and systems leadership are critical to the promotion of high quality and safe patient care. Leadership skills are needed that emphasize ethical and critical decision making, effective working relationships, and a systems-perspective.
3. Essential III: Quality Improvement and Safety
   Recognizes that a master’s-prepared nurse must be articulate in the methods, tools, performance measures, and standards related to quality, as well as prepared to apply quality principles within an organization.
4. Essential IV: Translating and Integrating Scholarship into Practice
   Recognizes that the master’s-prepared nurse applies research outcomes within the practice setting, resolves practice problems, works as a change agent, and disseminates results.
5. Essential V: Informatics and Healthcare Technologies
   Recognizes that the master’s-prepared nurse uses patient-care technologies to deliver and enhance care and uses communication technologies to integrate and coordinate care.
6. Essential VI: Health Policy and Advocacy
   Recognizes that the master’s-prepared nurse is able to intervene at the system level through the policy development process and to employ advocacy strategies to influence health and health care.
7. Essential VII: Interprofessional Collaboration for Improving Patient and Population Health Outcomes
   Recognizes that the master’s-prepared nurse, as a member and leader of interprofessional teams, communicates, collaborates, and consults with other health professionals to manage and coordinate care.
8. Essential VIII: Clinical Prevention and Population Health for Improving Health
   Recognizes that the master’s-prepared nurse applies and integrates broad, organizational, client-centered, and culturally appropriate concepts in the planning, delivery, management, and evaluation of evidence-based clinical prevention and population care and services to individuals, families, and aggregates/identified populations.
9. Essential IX: Master’s-Level Nursing Practice
   Recognizes that nursing practice, at the master’s level, is broadly defined as any form of nursing intervention that influences healthcare outcomes for individuals, populations, or systems. Master’s-level nursing graduates must have an advanced level of understanding of nursing and relevant sciences as well as the ability to integrate this knowledge into practice. Nursing practice interventions include both direct and indirect care components.

Graduates from the BSN-MSN program will achieve the following program learning outcomes through an integrated approach to learning, problem solving, evidence-based knowledge utilization, and skill acquisition. The AACN MSN Essentials that are associated with the MSN student learning outcomes are noted in parentheses: 

1. Integrate science-based theories and concepts into nursing practice and through interprofessional collaboration. (Essential 1, 7)
2. Critically evaluate effective strategies for improvement in practice including risk assessment and quality care delivery approaches that meet current and future needs of patient populations. (Essential 8)
3. Apply current research knowledge to solve complex practice situations. (Essential 4)
4. Use information systems/technology to support and improve patient care and healthcare systems. (Essential 5)
5. Assume leadership to design, implement, and advocate for health care policy that addresses issues of access, resource management, and equity in health care. (Essential 6)
6. Evaluate care delivery models and concepts to provide health promotion and risk reduction/illness prevention strategies. (Essential 2, 7)
7. Evaluate outcomes of evidence-based research and design appropriate interventions for specialized area of nursing practice to improve the health of individuals, groups, and populations. (Essential 3)