HSOL learning outcomes

When you graduate with a Master’s in Health Systems and Organizational Leadership, you will be able to:

• Apply advanced knowledge of nursing, organizational behavior and systems theories to improve care delivery and patient health.
• Make sound, culturally appropriate and ethically grounded judgments.
• Use emerging information, research and health technologies to improve patient outcomes and health equity.
• Demonstrate leadership skills to influence policy and organizational systems.
• Design, implement and improve person-centered interprofessional practice models.

NURS 509MC: Practicum/Capstone: Transition to Leading and Managing Change

8 credits. The Graduate Capstone Practicum is a culminating experience designed to provide students with an opportunity to apply nursing leadership knowledge and skills acquired throughout the program of study, focusing on the competencies of the graduate-level nurse leader. The experience will involve a project related to a professional nursing phenomenon of interest, such as, but not limited to, direct patient care issues, quality/process improvement, health care policy, or nursing administration. 

NURS 512: Leadership and Organizational Behavior

3 credits. This course will describe the general history and evolution of management theory and practice and how organizational behavior developed into its own field. Students will learn how to apply these theories to guide and direct an organization successfully. 

NURS 513: Concepts of Advanced Knowledge and Leadership

2 credits. The purpose of this course is to explore core concepts that are essential to performing current and emerging roles in health care delivery and design. Advanced nursing knowledge and higher-level leadership skills for improving health outcomes are examined. Select content in organizational systems leadership and quality improvement, informatics and technology, health policy, population health and professional role issues will be introduced. This course is offered for variable credit. 

NURS 524: Evaluating Evidence

3 credits. This course focuses on the evaluation of evidence for health care practice and the care environment. Emphasis is placed on the skills needed to identify, access and critique the various forms of evidence that inform practice decisions. The focus is primarily on students’ emerging abilities to identify strengths, limitations and gaps in evidence and generate questions. 

NURS 546A: Clarifying Racism – Institutional Racism

1 credit. The purpose of this course is to prepare graduate-level health professions students with critical thinking skills and inclusive communication practices with regard to racism and diversity issues in health care. This course will provide students with evidence-based knowledge on issues of institutional racism in health care settings, with a focus on best practices for providing health care for diverse individuals and groups. The course will cover a variety of readings on institutional racism. Students will develop communication techniques for reflecting about issues of institutional racism. This may include writing, speaking, listening and other applicable skills. 

NURS 546B: Clarifying Racism – Foundational Concepts of Bias

1 credit. The purpose of this course is to prepare graduate-level health professions students with critical thinking skills and inclusive communication practices with regard to racism and diversity issues in health care. This course will provide students with evidence-based knowledge on foundational concepts attributed to bias in health care settings, with a focus on best practices for providing health care for diverse individuals and groups. The course will cover a variety of readings on foundational concepts attributed to bias. Students will develop communication techniques for reflecting about foundational concepts attributed to bias. This may include writing, speaking, listening and other applicable skills. 

NURS 546C: Clarifying Racism – Unequal Treatment

1 credit. The purpose of this course is to prepare graduate-level health professions students with critical thinking skills and inclusive communication practices with regard to racism and diversity issues in health care. This course will provide students with evidence-based knowledge on issues of race and racism in unequal treatment in health care settings, with a focus on best practices for providing health care for diverse individuals and groups. The course will cover a variety of readings on unequal treatment through the lens of racism. Students will develop communication techniques for reflecting about issues of unequal treatment related to race and racism. This may include writing, speaking, listening and other applicable skills. 

NURS 580: Budget and Finance for Nurse Leaders

3 credits. This course provides a framework for understanding financial management for the nurse leader. The core concepts of revenue streams, workflows, budgets and budget variances will be examined. Financial data-driven decision-making will be a focus. 

HSOL 540: Creating Healthy Systems and Nurse Well-being

3 credits. This course will examine the overall health of U.S. Nurses and their workplaces. Students will explore factors that contribute to how the health of American nurses often being worse than that of the general population and multilevel solutions to this problem. Organizational attributes that contribute to nurse and staff well-being will be discussed. 

HSOL 541: Navigating Complexity and Chaos

3 credits. This course will examine the change in thinking, approach and outcomes when comparing a linear view of improvement with a complex science approach. Ecological and atomistic fallacies and their impact on multilevel system analysis and planning will be discussed. Discussions will guide an understanding of dynamic systems, fractals and the interrelation of complexity and chaos to understand systems. 

HSOL 542: Health Care Operations: The Intersection of Quality, Regulations, Law and Ethics

3 credits. This course will discuss the micro and macro challenges managers face when operationalizing policy and practice in any setting. A focus on how leaders can bring all the pieces of operations together successfully while navigating human resources, culture, operations, law and regulations while influencing organizational design and strategy to influence quality, safety and costs of care and the patient experience. 

HSOL 543: Health Policy and Economics

3 credits. This course will provide an overview of health care policy at the state and national level and provide a foundation for evaluating its impact on health outcomes. Social determinants of health and its impact on access to health care services, variations in the quality of those services will be discussed. 

HSOL 544: Project Management: Leading Projects to Successful Outcomes

3 credits. This course will discuss various process improvement and change management tools utilized by health care organizations to improve care. Students will enhance their intrapreneurship skills through the balanced use of design thinking, motivational techniques, risk-taking, knowledge sharing and empowerment. 

HSOL 545: Leading Interprofessional Patient-Centered Teams

2 credits. This course introduces the student to the competencies for interprofessional collaboration and discusses the history of interprofessional education and collaboration as well as barriers. The nature and potential sources of growing interprofessional conflict occurring within the context of care will be explored. Students will learn how to successfully build and manage interprofessional teams. 

HSOL 546: Organizational Communication

3 credits. In this course, students will learn an advanced understanding of how communication and workplace relationships influence organizational culture, team productivity and managerial effectiveness. A focus will be on professional communication skills in writing through organizing, thinking critically and communicating ideas and information in documents and presentations. 

BMI 510: Introduction to Biomedical and Health care Informatics

3 credits. An introduction to the fundamental principles of biomedical and health informatics, the field concerned with the acquisition, storage, and use of data and information in biomedicine and health. The course begins with a basic overview of the field, its terminology and its resources. It then surveys electronic and personal health records, standards and interoperability, and artificial intelligence, including machine learning, large language models and their applications in biomedical and health. The course also covers privacy and security, information retrieval, translational bioinformatics, public health informatics, nursing informatics and consumer health informatics. 

BMI 517: Organizational Behavior and Management (Informatics Selective)

3 credits. The most important functions of managers in an organization include understanding and motivating individuals and organizing structural systems within which they can work in a productive manner. This course will review the concepts, issues and practices of organizational behavior at the individual, group and organizational levels. Students will practice applying these concepts in simulated situations to improve personal effectiveness in groups or organizations. At the individual level, topics will include perception, decision-making, values, attitudes, job satisfaction and motivation. The group level topics are work teams, communication, leadership, power and politics, conflict and negotiation. Organizational level topics include organizational structure, work design, human resources policies, organizational culture and change.