MSN: Quality, Safety, and Risk Management in Healthcare Concentration
Major: Quality, Safety, and Risk Management in Healthcare
Degree Awarded: Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)
Calendar Type: Quarter
Minimum Required Credits: 46.0
Co-op Option: None
Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code: 51.0701
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code: 11-9111
About the Program
The MSN in Quality, Safety and Risk Management in Healthcare program draws from multiple disciplines. It’s ideal for working nurses who want to improve patient outcomes, reduce mortality rates and create positive change in patient care.
The interdisciplinary patient safety and health care quality Master of Science in Nursing program focuses on helping build key competencies. Students will learn how to enhance and monitor quality metrics, further safety for both patients and staff and manage risks in a dynamic health care and nursing environment. Plus, the format enables students to learn and collaborate as they would in practice.
Graduates of this program will be prepared to lead teams in a wide variety of quality and risk management initiatives including:
- Aligning the patient safety, risk and quality functions within the organization
- Ensuring that the patient safety, risk and quality activities are aligned with the strategic goals of the organization
- Assessing current activities in patient safety, risk and quality to clarify responsibilities and reduce duplication of effort
- Establishing a structure that ensures that patient care activities are addressed in a coordinated manner involving the patient safety, risk and quality functions
- Assembling a team to ensure that the structure for patient safety, risk and quality activities maximizes legal protections while allowing for the flow of information across all functions
- Coordinating process changes, data collection, data analysis, monitoring and evaluation
- Evaluating the roles of patient safety, risk and quality as the organization's needs change
The program is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.
The program is certified by CAHME (Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education).
Additional Information
For more information about this program, contact:
Graduate Nursing Division
CNHPGraduateDivision@drexel.edu
Additional information is available on Drexel's College of Nursing and Health Professions MSN in Quality, Safety, and Risk Management in Healthcare webpage and on the Drexel University Online MSN in Quality, Safety, and Risk Management in Healthcare webpage.
Admission Requirements
- A Bachelor of Science in Nursing from a program fully accredited by the National League of Nursing (NLN/ACEN) or the American Association Colleges of Nursing (AACN/CCNE).
- RNs with a BS in a field other than nursing may wish to pursue the RN-MSN "bridge" program or the Dual RN-BSN-MSN Pathway.
- 3.0 or above on all previous coursework or the last 60.0 credits completed. Applications from RNs with a GPA less than a 3.0 may be considered on an individual basis.
- Official transcripts from all previous educational institutions are required.
- Two professional references are required from colleagues or supervisors who can attest to the applicant’s knowledge, skill and potential aptitude for graduate study.
- Letters of recommendation are waived for students with a 3.0 GPA or higher.
- Personal statement (no more than two pages and no less than one page double-spaced) that will give the admissions committee a better understanding of the following:
- Why you are choosing this particular program of study.
- Your plans upon completion of the certificate.
- How your current work experience will enhance your experience in this program.
- Curriculum vitae or resume.
- Copy of current United States RN license is required.
- Copies of any advanced practice nursing licensure and certification documents.
- While specific experience is not required for applicants to the track, previous related work experience may make an applicant more competitive.
International applicants must possess a BSN (or its equivalent) and a current United States RN license.
TOEFL Requirement
International applicants, as well as immigrants to the United States and United States permanent residents whose native language is not English and who have not received a bachelor’s degree or higher in the United States, Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand or the United Kingdom, must show proficiency in English speaking as well as listening, writing, and reading. U.S. citizens born on U.S. military bases abroad may be waived from the TOEFL requirement after providing documentation of this status; otherwise, applicants must meet one of the following requirements:
If you take the TOEFLiBT exam, you are required to have a minimum combined score for the listening, writing and reading sections of 79 plus a speaking section score of 26 or higher.
If you take the TOEFL, you are required to have a minimum score of 550 or higher and a Test of Spoken English score (TSE) of 55 or higher.
Degree Requirements
| Core Courses | ||
| NURS 500 [WI] | Confronting Issues in Contemporary Health Care Environments | 3.0 |
| NURS 502 | Advanced Ethical Decision Making in Health Care | 3.0 |
| NURS 544 | Quality and Safety in Healthcare | 3.0 |
| RSCH 503 | Research Methods and Biostatistics | 3.0 |
| RSCH 504 | Evaluation and Translation of Health Research | 3.0 |
| Major Courses | ||
| IPS 584 | Analysis of Performance Standards in Healthcare Quality | 3.0 |
| IPS 585 | Science of Safety, Human Factors, and System Thinking | 3.0 |
| IPS 587 | Safety Culture in Healthcare | 3.0 |
| IPS 601 | Quality, Safety and Risk Management Capstone | 5.0 |
| LSTU 551 | Compliance Skills: Auditing, Investigation & Reporting | 4.0 |
| LSTU 600 | Health Care Rules and Regulations | 4.0 |
| LSTU 601 | Health Care Quality, Patient Safety and Risk Management | 4.0 |
| LSTU 602 | Patients and Privacy: HIPAA and Related Regulations | 4.0 |
| Total Credits | 45.0 | |
Writing-Intensive Course Requirement
A [WI], Writing Intensive, next to a graduate course in this catalog indicates that the graduate course is a writing intensive course. The graduate course is a required course in your curriculum.
Sample Plan of Study
| First Year | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall | Credits | Winter | Credits | Spring | Credits | Summer | Credits |
| NURS 500 | 3.0 | LSTU 601 | 4.0 | LSTU 602 | 4.0 | LSTU 551 | 4.0 |
| NURS 544 | 3.0 | NURS 502 | 3.0 | RSCH 503 | 3.0 | RSCH 504 | 3.0 |
| 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | ||||
| Second Year | |||||||
| Fall | Credits | Winter | Credits | Spring | Credits | ||
| IPS 584 | 3.0 | IPS 585 | 3.0 | IPS 601 | 5.0 | ||
| LSTU 600 | 4.0 | IPS 587 | 3.0 | ||||
| 7 | 6 | 5 | |||||
| Total Credits 45 | |||||||
Program Level Outcomes
- Apply a legal and ethical framework of health care delivery
- Further the role of the quality, safety, and risk management professional in the health care system through scholarship, clinical experience, and organizational involvement
- Demonstrate critical thinking and diagnostic reasoning skills in decision-making
- Integrate multiple technologies and relevant theories into the organization and synthesis of health data to care for patients, families, and communities
- Integrate culturally sensitive care that contributes to the health and wellness of the community
- Demonstrate leadership through the development of outcome-based standards of care and practice-based health policy issues
- Drive the quality and effectiveness of care based on current research findings, standards of care, and patient outcomes
- Contribute to the advancement of health care and humanity through communication, interprofessional collaboration and education