Faculty in the University of Colorado College of Nursing have been busy this fall pulling together new academic programs to meet the demands of the profession.

Nursing Education Certificate

A new nursing education certificate will allow bachelor-prepared RNs to take the next step toward roles in nursing education. Whether nurses are interested in precepting students in their hospitals or clinical setting or are interested in becoming nurse educators, this three-course certificate will help them explore best practices in evidence-based teaching and learning. The first course, NURS 7862 Best Practices in Teaching and Learning, will be offered spring semester. The other two certificate courses—Evolving Nursing Education Science and Nurse Educator Roles and Outcome-Focused Curriculum Design and Program Evaluation—will be offered summer and fall respectively. Courses can also be taken inpidually to address specific interests and learning goals.

Acute Care Nurse Practitioner MS

Curriculum for a master’s specialty in adult acute care nurse practitioner has just been approved by the College of Nursing and Graduate School faculty and will begin accepting students for a fall 2015 start. The college currently offers post-master’s certificates in the adult and pediatric acute care nurse practitioner roles. The certificates allow nurse practitioners already working in hospital settings to become certified in acute care. The new specialty would train nurses with baccalaureate degrees for the adult acute care nurse practitioner role.

Military Veterans’ Health Initiative

The first course in the college’s new veteran’s and military health initiative, NURS 6023 Veteran and Military Health Care Systems, will also be offered in spring 2015. This course will examine veteran and military health care delivery systems, related policies, health care trends and issues facing those systems, with an eye toward creating innovation in these areas. The course is approved for graduate credit and may be applied as an elective toward current MS and PhD programs, or for future graduate programs in military/veterans’ health. Curriculum for these graduate programs are still under development.