Nursing Programs Learning Objectives

Nursing Learning Outcomes for BSN, MSN-ELM, MSN-APRN, and DNP Programs

Nursing program learning outcomes define the knowledge, skills, and competencies students are expected to develop across CDU’s BSN, MSN/Post-Master’s Certificate, and Doctor of Nursing Practice programs. These outcomes focus on evidence-based care, patient safety, clinical judgment, leadership, health equity, and service to diverse communities.

Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN)

Upon completion of the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program, graduates will be able to: 

1. Demonstrate a commitment to a lifelong learning plan for professional development.
2. Demonstrate cultural and spiritual competencies in providing care and working with other healthcare professionals from diverse cultures and spiritual backgrounds.
3. Demonstrate ethical and professional nursing roles, values, social justice, and human dignity.
4. Demonstrate knowledge of current nursing trends to form interdisciplinary collaborative relationships that improve professional nursing practice and the quality of healthcare within local and global communities.
5. Design competent, patient-centered professional nursing care for individuals, families, and populations across the health continuum in a variety of community-based settings.
6. Implement health promotion and disease prevention elements in planning and providing care for individuals, families, and populations.
7. Implement leadership strategies that support and promote professional nursing practice.
8. Integrate effective communication, informatics, and information literacy skills for professional nursing practice.
9. Integrate political and regulatory processes to influence healthcare systems, clinical practice, and quality improvement policies.
10. Use evidence-based practice and research findings in the provision of professional nursing practice.

Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

The Master of Science in Nursing, Entry-Level Master’s (MSN-ELM) and Master of Science in Nursing, Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (MSN-APRN) programs are designed around the expected competencies of a master ’s-level nurse clinician, with terminal objectives leveled accordingly.

Entry-Level Master’s (ELM)

Designed for individuals who hold a bachelor’s degree in another field, the ELM program offers a pathway into nursing at the graduate level. Students gain foundational nursing knowledge and science alongside graduate core content, preparing them for licensure as registered nurses.

Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN)

The MSN-APRN program offers two specialty tracks:

• Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP): Prepares registered nurses to deliver primary care across a range of clinical and community-based settings.
• Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP): Prepares advanced practice nurses to manage the care of individuals and families across the lifespan.

Curriculum Foundation

Both programs are grounded in the physical and social sciences and build upon prior learning in philosophy, the arts, and the humanities. The curriculum integrates emerging healthcare trends with focused study in economics, environmental science, epidemiology, genetics, gerontology, global health perspectives, informatics, organizational systems, and communication.

Master of Science in Nursing, Entry-Level Master’s (MSN-ELM)

Upon completion of the ELM program, graduates will be able to:

1. Synthesize theoretical and empirical knowledge derived from the physical and behavioral sciences and humanities as a basis for professional nursing practice.
2. Apply the nursing process to all levels of practice using the steps of assessment, diagnosis, outcomes identification, planning, interventions, and evaluation.
3. Demonstrate competent practice as a master’s-prepared registered nurse in a variety of settings.
4. Implement health promotion and disease prevention strategies in population-based practice that engage systems, communities, individuals, and families.
5. Communicate effectively using oral, written, and technological skills in clinical, educational, and professional settings.
6. Demonstrate ethical nursing practice to improve professional nursing practice, the work environment, and healthcare outcomes.
7. Advocate for patients’ rights, healthcare policies, and finance systems that promote, preserve, and restore individual and public health.
8. Provide leadership in collaborative efforts with interdisciplinary and intradisciplinary teams, providing a broad approach to complex patient care and community problems.
9. Demonstrate a spirit of inquiry and critically analyze data, research findings, and other evidence to advance nursing practice, initiate change, and promote quality healthcare.
10. Formulate a professional philosophy that incorporates a commitment to human values and lifelong learning.
11. Provide leadership in collaborative efforts with other disciplines to improve professional nursing practice, the work environment, and healthcare outcomes.

Master of Science in Nursing, Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (MSN-APRN)

Upon completion of the APRN program, graduates will be able to:

• Integrate knowledge from nursing science, biophysical science, psychosocial science, and related disciplines to support advanced clinical judgment, diagnostic reasoning, and evidence-based nurse practitioner practice.
• Provide person-centered, relationship-based advanced nursing care that is developmentally appropriate, culturally responsive, trauma-informed, and grounded in respect, dignity, and shared decision-making.
• Perform comprehensive and focused advanced assessments and synthesize clinical data to formulate differential diagnoses, clinical priorities, and evidence-based plans of care for individuals, families, and populations within the nurse practitioner scope of practice.
• Manage health promotion, disease prevention, acute and chronic conditions, and behavioral and mental health needs through evidence-based pharmacologic, nonpharmacologic, psychotherapeutic, and educational interventions as appropriate to population focus and role preparation.
• Apply population health principles, epidemiologic reasoning, and knowledge of social drivers of health to design, coordinate, and evaluate strategies that improve health equity and outcomes for diverse communities and underserved populations.
• Translate, appraise, and apply current evidence, clinical guidelines, and quality improvement methods to improve outcomes, strengthen systems of care, and advance advanced nursing practice.
• Collaborate effectively with patients, families, communities, and interprofessional partners to promote care coordination, therapeutic communication, role clarity, and high-quality outcomes across settings.
• Use informatics, healthcare technologies, and outcomes data to support clinical decision-making, patient safety, quality evaluation, and responsible management of health information.
• Demonstrate ethical, legal, and professional accountability in advanced nursing practice through advocacy, policy awareness, responsible prescribing and decision-making, and commitment to equitable access to care.
• Exhibit leadership, professional identity, and lifelong learning through self-reflection, practice improvement, scholarly engagement, and sustained commitment to the nurse practitioner role in a changing healthcare environment.

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Upon completion of the DNP program, graduates will be able to:

1. Develop practices based on advanced knowledge of nursing theories and empirical studies derived from other disciplines and organizational sciences as the underpinnings of nursing practice and support the advancement of the nursing profession to its highest level.
2. Develop healthcare practices that draw from theory and evidence-based advanced nursing practice and create and evaluate innovative, complex approaches to deliver patient-centered care.
3. Examine the influence of public policy decisions on the health promotion, disease prevention, and health restoration services provided to diverse populations.
4. Design and implement safe, equitable, high-quality healthcare for vulnerable populations grounded in translational science, multidisciplinary knowledge, and social justice principles.
5. Develop and disseminate a quality improvement project after investigating regulations and quality improvement methods to identify, develop, implement, and evaluate best safe practices for patients, healthcare providers, and the healthcare system.
6. Design multidisciplinary clinical/leader partnerships to strengthen healthcare goals by leveraging the roles and abilities of the interdisciplinary team to yield positive patient and system outcomes
7. Create innovative, evidence-based approaches to optimize system effectiveness while considering internal and external policies and processes that can result in structural prejudice and other forms of discrimination in healthcare systems.
8. Investigate data analytic methods, information systems, and technology in compliance with professional, legal, ethical, and regulatory requirements to improve programs of care, outcomes of care, and delivery of care systems.
9. Create a professional development program that outlines nursing’s unique professional identity in asserting control, influence, and power in professional and personal contexts, with an emphasis on advocating for patient rights, diversity, equity, and inclusion in the healthcare sector through the nursing profession.
10. Develop strategic leadership and advocacy skills in advanced nursing practice that lead to quality improvement, patient safety, and workplace initiatives, and advance the profession.