MSN Bridge Pathway With a Health Care Quality and Patient Safety Emphasis
Advance Your Nursing Career with GCU's MSN Bridge Pathway
Grand Canyon University’s (GCU’s) MSN bridge pathway with a health care quality and patient safety emphasis was created by the College of Nursing and Health Care Professions to support registered nurses with bachelor’s degrees in fields other than nursing. Students who complete this bridge pathway are eligible to enroll in GCU’s MSN with an Emphasis in Health Care Quality and Patient Safety program to complete your degree and further advance your studies.
Make an Impact in the Lives of Others Through Improved Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety
Enrolling in GCU’s MSN bridge pathway with a health care quality and patient safety emphasis teaches registered nurses how to improve the quality and safety of nursing. In this pathway, you will examine ways to improve patient outcomes and healthcare quality from all aspects. You will explore the quality improvement process, examine models used to improve health care quality and be taught about change management.
Loading Form
Loading
Explore Health Care Quality and Patient Safety Course Topics
In GCU’s master’s in nursing with healthcare quality and patient safety emphasis bridge pathway, you will complete seven courses and focus on differentiated nursing practice competencies, methods of health history taking, physical examination skills, nursing conceptual models, professional accountability, integrating spirituality into practice, group dynamics, critical thinking and more.
To complete this bridge pathway, you must pass courses surrounding the following topics:
- Dynamics of nursing practice
- Health assessment
- Applied statistics
- Nursing research
- Pathophysiology
- Concepts in community of public health
Advanced Nursing Career Opportunities in Health Care Quality and Patient Safety
GCU’s MSN bridge pathway with a health care quality and patient safety emphasis is ideal for registered nurses without BSNs looking to set themselves apart and position themselves for possible career advancement in healthcare. This bridge pathway helps you gain the foundational knowledge that you'll need to apply for the MSN degree program.
Health Care Quality and Patient Safety MSN Bridge Pathway FAQs
If you’re a current nurse who is looking to get into healthcare quality and patient safety, this bridge pathway can be your next step. Read through our frequently asked questions to learn more about pursuing a career in this field.
This pathway provides the opportunity for registered nurses with a non-nursing bachelor’s degree to fill in knowledge gaps by completing pre-requisite courses that can prepare them for admission into an MSN with an Emphasis in Health Care Quality and Patient Safety program.
The MSN bridge pathway with an emphasis in health care quality and patient safety consists of 24 total credits to completion. Each online class is five weeks in length, with the exception of the capstone and practicum course.
If you’re a nursing without a BSN and are looking for a way to advance your nursing education in the health care quality and patient safety sector, a bridge pathway could benefit you. This pathway is structured to prepare you for a successful transition and entry into the MSN program. Additionally, healthcare careers are on the rise. According to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2 million new jobs are estimated to open for healthcare occupations from 2021 to 2031.2
1 Excludes programs with residencies and practicums.
2 COVID-19 has adversely affected the global economy and data from 2020 and 2021 may be atypical compared to prior years. The pandemic may impact the predicted future workforce outcomes indicated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as well. Accordingly, data shown is effective September 2022, which can be found here: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Healthcare Occupations, retrieved on April 28, 2023.
Core Courses
Course Description
This course is an introduction to the Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education, the role of the professional nurse, and the importance of effective nursing leadership. Standards of practice, differentiated nursing practice, professional accountability, interprofessional collaboration, and quality improvement are emphasized with importance placed on the application of leadership styles and management skills.
Course Description
This course focuses on methods of health history taking, physical examination skills, and documentation. Students integrate assessment skills and clinical judgment/reasoning in identifying actual or potential health problems and needs across the life span. Health promotion strategies are incorporated to provide for the unique needs of the individual, ensuring person-centered care. The course emphasizes the importance of providing compassionate care dealing with diversity, equity, and inclusion. Students design plans of care based on evidence-based research and practice.
Course Description
This course focuses on the community as the patient taking into account varying cultures, spiritual values, geographic norms, and economic conditions. The course examines social determinants of health, including social, legal, and political variables impacting individual, community, and population health across the life span. Students use epidemiological data, functional health pattern assessments, and nursing theories to plan and intervene in areas of health promotion and disease prevention across the life span.
Course Description
This course is designed to build upon existing knowledge of the pathophysiological processes of disease as they affect patients across the life span, recognizing the nurse's multidimensional role in health promotion and disease management and prevention, which include biological, environmental, social, psychological, and spiritual dimensions. Integration of nutritional and pharmacological concepts encourages critical thinking and application of nursing interventions. Prerequisite: NRS-420.
Course Description
This is an introductory course on concepts of statistics, emphasizing applications to health care professions. The course is designed to prepare learners to understand concepts of statistics and the appropriateness of statistical methods used in published research papers and a variety of settings. Areas of emphasis include an introduction to the statistical analysis concepts of variable/reliability factors; P values; experimental design; descriptive statistics, including mean, median, and mode; sampling methods; and power analysis.
Course Description
This writing-intensive course promotes the use of research findings as a basis for improving clinical practice. Quantitative and qualitative research methodologies are analyzed with an emphasis on the critical review of research studies and their application to clinical practice. Students develop evidence-based practice recommendations from the critical analysis of available literature guided by a PICOT question. Prerequisite: HLT-362V.
Course Description
The final course in the program is writing-intensive. It will integrate the academic and practical knowledge students have acquired throughout the program’s curriculum. Students participate in planned clinical experiences that refine professional competencies at the baccalaureate level and enable them to integrate new knowledge and enhanced skills to advance nursing practice. Clinical practice hours are dedicated to learning objectives in leadership and community health. The evidence-based project provides students an opportunity to identify a clinical nursing practice issue and propose a possible solution. Students, under the guidance of faculty and approved preceptors, identify and analyze a nurse practice issue, develop a change project, and propose an evidence-based solution that reflects synthesis and integration of course content and professional practice. The evidence-based project development is guided by the baccalaureate program learning outcomes. Clinical hours: 100. 50 hours in leadership and 50 hours in community health. Prerequisite: NRS-415, NRS-420, NRS-425, HLT-362V, NRS-445, PHI-413V, NRS-450, NRS-455, NRS-460.
- GCU cannot and will not promise job placement, a job, graduate school placement, transfer of GCU program credits to another institution, promotion, salary, or salary increase. Please see the Career Services Policy in the University Policy Handbook.
- Please note that this list may contain programs and courses not presently offered, as availability may vary depending on class size, enrollment and other contributing factors. If you are interested in a program or course listed herein please first contact your University Counselor for the most current information regarding availability.
- Please refer to the Academic Catalog for more information. Programs or courses subject to change
Pursue a next-generation education with an online degree from Grand Canyon University. Earn your degree with convenience and flexibility with online courses that let you study anytime, anywhere.