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Online RN to Master of Science in Nursing Leadership and Administration of Health Care Systems
Prepare for Advancement by Earning Both a Bachelor’s in Nursing and a Master’s in Nursing Leadership and Administration of Health Care Systems
If you’re a Registered Nurse looking to earn both a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a Master of Science in Nursing Leadership and Administration of Health Care Systems, this fully online dual degree program allows you to earn both degrees more efficiently than completing the programs separately.
Students earn a bachelor’s degree in nursing after completing all general education and bachelor’s component courses, which include five graduate-level online courses. Then, students continue seamlessly into the remaining graduate-level online courses. The dynamic and challenging curriculum of the Master of Science in Nursing Leadership and Administration of Health Care Systems part of the program empowers you with the skills and knowledge you need to play a vital role in health care systems, have a seat at the executive table, and have an influential voice when essential decisions are made about health care.
Online courses and an individualized practice experience, in which you assume a leadership role under the guidance of an experienced mentor, prepare you for leadership roles in a variety of settings. Nurse leaders make an impact in acute health care facilities, community health centers, academic institutions, information technology organizations, and pharmaceutical industries, among other places.
This program requires outstanding critical thinking skills and nursing judgment as well as commitment to academic rigor.
Learn more about the application requirements for the online RN to MSN in Nursing Leadership and Administration of Health Care Systems.
Fast Facts:
The median health services manager salary is $98,350 (Source: BLS)
Opportunities in nursing leadership and management positions are expected to grow by 23 percent (Source: Nurse Journal)
Graduates a MS in nursing can work as nurse anesthetists, nurse midwives, and nurse practitioners (Source: BLS)
144
credit hours
Online RN to MS in Nursing Leadership and Administration of Health Care Systems Program Details
Undergraduate General Education Component
Cornerstone Course
Information Literacy
Written English Requirement
Humanities:
- Humanities
- Ethics Core
Social Sciences:
- Social Sciences/History
- Psychology Core Requirement
- Sociology Core Requirement
Natural Sciences/Mathematics:
- Human Anatomy and Physiology Core
- Microbiology Core
- Sciences Supportive of Nursing Core
- Statistics Core
- Natural Sciences/Mathematics
Arts and Sciences Electives
Nursing Credit for Prior Learning and Successful Completion of NCLEX-RN: 30 Credits
Core Courses
Leadership and Management in Nursing
This course focuses on the application of leadership and management concepts and theories; inter-professional communication and collaboration; and evidence-based strategies and inquiry within health care organizations. Team building, quality improvement, patient and staff safety, and fiscal management are addressed within the role of baccalaureate-prepared nurse leader and manager across a variety of health care settings.
Community Health Nursing Caring for the Public’s Health
This course integrates evidence, theory, standards, and knowledge from nursing, public health, and other disciplines to guide population-focused nursing practice. Importance is placed on the application of the core functions of public health: assessment, policy development, and the assurance of available and necessary health services for diverse populations. Emphasis is placed in identifying determinants of health, advocating for vulnerable populations, prioritizing primary prevention, and utilizing available resources to improve the health of populations. Population-focused nursing involves assessing the health care needs of a specific population and making health care decisions for the population as a whole rather than for individuals. This course includes practice experiences in the community.
Transformational Nursing: Innovation, Inquiry, and Scholarship
This course explores how nursing may be transformed. The ways of knowing set a foundation for knowledge acquisition and competencies for master’s-prepared nurses. The need for nurses to be innovators, through the application of inquiry and scholarship, are discussed in relation to such topics as leadership, change, and power. Theory-based and scientific competencies are examined as they relate to specializations in nursing. A spirit of inquiry, combined with creativity, curiosity, and the translation of evidence, is explored through critical conversations that support interprofessional collaboration and professional nursing roles in a dynamic healthcare environment.
Theoretical Foundations of Nursing Practice
Theoretical Foundations of Nursing Practice focuses on the exploration of nursing knowledge development to include philosophy, theories, models, and concepts that have been designed to guide nursing practice. It provides approaches to analyze and critique a variety of theories in nursing and related fields.
Advanced Physical Assessment
This course focuses on the advanced comprehensive assessment of individuals. It builds on the students’ knowledge and skills and provides a foundation for the advanced practice nurse to evaluate the health of individuals and provide health promotion interventions. The interactions of developmental, biopsychosocial, and socio-cultural contexts resulting in health effects for individuals provide the structure of the course. Students obtain the practice skills necessary for advanced communication (i.e., clinical interviewing, focused history taking), biopsychosocial and physical assessment, critical diagnostic reasoning, differential diagnosis, and clinical decision-making through course readings, dialog, discussions, videos, simulations, and practical examinations. This course includes 45 hours of clinical experience.
Research and Evidence-Based Practice
Research and Evidenced-Based Practice focuses on the research process and the analysis and evaluation of research to integrate the best evidence into practice. Emphasis is on the identification of generic and discipline-specific health care issues, synthesis of client care and research initiatives to inform evidence, and translation of research to support and inform practice innovations.
Policy, Ethics, and Population Health
This course examines public policy, political ideology, and ethics as they shape health policy across populations. Political ideology, social and health policy are considered within the lens of population based health and reducing health disparities. The role of the master’s-prepared nurse is to lead and advocate within the public policy arena is explored and discussed. Contemporary issues in health policy viewed from the perspective of ethics and the social and material determinants of health are considered. A primary focus of the course is consideration and development of the knowledge and skills that the master’s-prepared nurse needs as a change agent in health policy.
Nursing Capstone
This capstone course focuses on integration and synthesis of knowledge, skills, and competencies from nursing, other disciplines, and the arts and sciences. Application of specific concepts and theories, such as communication, critical thinking, and leadership, enables students to transform theory to practice within health care systems. This course includes practice experiences.
Epidemiology
The science of epidemiology is essential in planning disease prevention interventions, developing an understanding of disease etiology, identifying trends in morbidity and mortality, and providing a basis for the development of public health policy. This course will serve as an introduction to the core concepts and methods of epidemiology. Students will explore factors related to the etiology and distribution of illness in populations including exposure, transmission, and prevention. Methodologies used in surveillance techniques will also be introduced and explored.
Graduate Elective
This may be completed within the graduate program or transferred from other graduate programs if they are deemed eligible for credit.
The leadership and administration component consists of four online courses.
Management of Clinical Systems
Management of Clinical Systems focuses on the application of management principles, processes, techniques, and tools to shape a supportive environment of care and promote continuous improvement in clinical care systems.
Management of Fiscal and Operational Systems
Management of Fiscal and Operational Systems focuses on the application of management principles to design cost-effective clinical systems and achieve optimal resource use across the health care enterprise.
Leadership in Organizational Systems
Leadership in Organizational Systems focuses on critical examination of leadership styles, strategies, and competencies of the nurse executive to successfully manage the health care enterprise. It emphasizes leadership skills for strategic planning, enhancing team performance and interdisciplinary collaboration, and creating a culture of quality performance.
Management Information for Decision Support
This course focuses on the identification, acquisition, analysis, interpretation, and application of data, databases, and decision-making strategies for health care. It emphasizes decision-support systems concepts, as well as methodologies and technologies, and includes content on model management, knowledge management, and strategies to consider when selecting decision-
The Nursing Leadership and Administration Capstone
This culminating experience provides learners with an opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills they’ve acquired throughout the program of study, focusing on the competencies of the graduate-level nurse. This course consists of several integrated components: a 135-hour practice experience, discussion, reflective journal, scholarly paper, and project presentation.
Bachelor’s Student Learning Program Outcomes
- Promote holistic patient-centered care and population health supporting values, culture, right to self-fulfillment, and quality care outcomes.
- Integrate evidence, nursing theory, and knowledge from other disciplines to guide nursing practice
- Formulate decisions based on nursing judgment and collaboration with the interprofessional team to achieve quality patient outcomes.
- Incorporate professional core values, guidelines, standards of practice, and lifelong learning as a basis for professional nursing practice.
- Apply principles of leadership to advocate for the unique role of the nursing profession within the health care system.
- Engage in the spirit of inquiry to propose solutions that support nursing excellence.
Master’s Student Learning Program Outcomes
- Function as a leader and change agent to promote holistic patient-centered care and population health.
- Translate evidence to develop health care practices in a culturally and ethnically diverse global society.
- Synthesize theoretical and empirical knowledge from nursing and other disciplines that are essential for nursing judgment and practice.
- Integrate specialty practice knowledge to enhance interprofessional collaboration, inform decisions, and improve health outcomes.
- Exemplify professional values and standards, best practices, and the commitment to lifelong learning in the role of the master’s-prepared nurse.
- Implement the role of master’s-prepared nurse as part of the interprofessional team.
- Integrate scholarship, a spirit of inquiry, and innovation to support nursing excellence.
Surveys are administered to our nursing program students upon graduation and at one year post-graduation. The survey results are available here.
View additional details about programs and courses:
Download the Nursing and Health Sciences CatalogCommon Careers with an
Online RN to MS in Nursing Leadership and Administration of Health Care Systems

- Nurse Executive
- Chief Nursing Officer
- Dean/ Chair of Academic Program
- Nurse Manager
- Nursing Director
- Public Health Nurse Leader
- Nurse Researcher
- Clinical Coordinator
Explore Common Careers

Herma Lee
Master of Science in Nursing
2018
Recognitions & Accreditations
New York State Board of Regents – Recognized Programmatic Accreditation
Excelsior University’s nursing programs are programmatically accredited by the New York State (NYS) Board of Regents, State Education Department Office of the Professions (the Regents). The U.S. Department of Education has recognized the Regents as a state agency for the approval of nursing education programs since 1969. More information about the NYS Board of Regents’ Recognized Programmatic Accreditation may be helpful for students or graduates to present to a school they are attending or to an employer seeking more information about their Excelsior University nursing degree.
ACEN Accreditation
The RN to BS in Nursing, RN to MS in Nursing dual degree programs, and master’s nursing programs at Excelsior University are accredited by the:
Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN)
3390 Peachtree Road NE, Suite 1400
Atlanta, GA 30326
404-975-5000
These programs include: Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Master of Science in Nursing Leadership and Administration of Health Care Systems, Master of Science in Nursing Education, Master of Science in Nursing Informatics, RN to Master of Science in Nursing Leadership and Administration of Health Care Systems, RN to Master of Science in Nursing Education, and RN to Master of Science in Nursing Informatics.
The most recent accreditation decision made by the ACEN Board of Commissioners for the bachelor’s nursing program in March 2019 is Continuing Accreditation.
The most recent accreditation decision made by the ACEN Board of Commissioners for the master’s nursing program in March 2019 is Continuing Accreditation.
View the public information disclosed by the ACEN regarding these programs at acenursing.us/accreditedprograms/programSearch.htm.
Institutional Accreditation
Excelsior University is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, 1007 North Orange Street, 4th Floor, MB #166, Wilmington, DE 19801 (267-284-5011) www.msche.org. The MSCHE is an institutional accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).
Phase: Accredited
Status: Accreditation Reaffirmed
Accreditation Granted: 1977
Last Reaffirmation: 2022
Next Self-Study Evaluation: 2029-2030
All of Excelsior University’s academic programs are registered (i.e., approved) by the New York State Education Department.