Enhance Healthcare
Online RN to BSN Curriculum
Challenge yourself to increase your knowledge with relevant coursework in our RN to BSN curriculum. Reach the next level of nursing and provide and lead enhanced patient care as a member of an interprofessional healthcare team.
In this 34-credit curriculum, you will follow a sequence of courses designed to build on each other. Topics include advancing perspectives of professional nursing; designing and delivering evidence-based practice; impacting health promotion for families, communities, and older adults; influencing the creation and implementation of healthcare policy; advancing skills as a nurse leader; and more.
Your coursework will connect what you learn to current healthcare challenges, with assignments that are relevant to the life of the working RN and learning you can put to use in meeting daily employment expectations.
Clinical Experiences
This curriculum includes a variety of clinical experiences involving community/population health and evolving nursing leadership. Many of the experiences are self-selected and scheduled to allow for the flexibility needed by the working nurse.
Benedictine Hallmarks
The RN to BSN curriculum thoughtfully and carefully weaves Benedictine University's 10 Hallmarks throughout the courses, touching on Community and Hospitality to Stewardship and Humility. These come to life in courses through either discussions, written assignments, or personal reflection, and provide evidence-based, person-centered care that promotes health equity.
Review the descriptions below for a look at what you can expect to learn in each of the 11 courses in this curriculum.
RN to BSN Nursing Courses
NRHL 3315: Perspectives of Professional Nursing Practice
Explores the conceptual foundations of baccalaureate nursing practice including historical and societal influences, professional identity and accountability, critical inquiry, nursing theory, evidence-based practice, and quality and safety within the context of national policy documents and professional standards of care. Coursework is designed to assess, develop, and advance scholarly writing. Writing Intensive Course. 4 semester credit hours.
Prerequisite: Admission to RN to BSN Program.
NRHL 3330 Nursing Scholarship: Role of Research in Evidence-Based Practice
Explores the research process as it applies to evidence-based nursing practice and health care. Topics include ethics in research; steps in appraisal of evidence; design, sampling, data collection, data quality, and analysis; and interpretation of quantitative and qualitative research. Emphasis is placed on analysis and critique of research studies and the preparation of a proposal. 3 semester credit hours.
Prerequisite: NRHL 3315.
NRHL 3335 Concepts in Collaborative Health Promotion and Disease Prevention for the Older Adult
Focuses on an interdisciplinary comprehensive approach to understanding the aging process and promoting optimal health and independence of older adults. Contemporary issues facing the elderly including safety, abuse, polypharmacy, housing, loss, need for support services, end-of-life care, and the impact of health care policy and legislation as they relate to the elderly are explored. Includes clinical learning experiences with an elder and elder-serving agency selected by the student. Engaged Learning. 3 semester credit hours.
Prerequisite: NRHL 3315.
NRHL 3340 Comprehensive Health and Physical Assessment
Designed for the registered nurse, this course provides the framework for the RN to expand existing skills. The course focuses on the physical, psychosocial, sociocultural, environmental, and developmental elements of comprehensive assessment and on principles of health promotion and disease prevention. Includes a clinical learning experience, which focuses on the practice and validation of interviewing and physical assessment skills. At the end of the course, students will be expected to perform a comprehensive physical exam and effectively communicate findings. A student selected holistic health assessment experience is also included. Engaged Learning. 3 semester credit hours.
Prerequisite: NRHL 3315.
NRHL 3345 Applications of Pathophysiology and Pharmacotherapeutics to Clinical Reasoning
Designed for the registered nurse to build upon existing knowledge and experience, this course provides an analysis of physiology and pathophysiological concepts related to complex, multisystem health alterations across the lifespan. Emphasis is placed on enhancement of critical thinking skills.
Clinical application emphasizes the relationship of assessment findings to diagnosis, safe selection, and administration of pharmacotherapeutic agents; and assessment of outcomes using an evidence-based approach. This course also includes a clinical learning experience that is based on case study analyses of patients with multiple chronic diseases and complex pharmacotherapeutic management in various settings. Engaged Learning. 3 semester credit hours.
Prerequisite: NRHL 3315.
NRHL 4365 Health Promotion for Families, Communities, and Populations
Explores the concept of patient-centered healthcare promotion from the perspective of the individual, family, and community within a global context. Provides an in-depth review of approaches to health promotion as well as effective collaboration among members of the health care community. Focuses on potential barriers that place individuals, families, and vulnerable populations at risk for major health problems. Students explore the problems and issues in using behavioral and social science theories, concepts, and data to inform health promotion and health education research and interventions. 3 semester credit hours.
Prerequisite: NRHL 3330, NRHL 3335, NRHL 3340 and NRHL 3345.
Completion of this course; in addition to NRHL 4392 with a grade of “B” or better is required to waive enrollment in NRHL 5501 for students admitted into the Benedictine University MSN Program.
NRHL 4366 Professional Practice in Health Promotion
Emphasis is based on community as a partner, through community assessment, evolving cultural competency, enhanced understanding of health disparities, and use of community resources and evidence based practice to promote and maintain optimal health. This course includes 35 hours of clinical practice experiences in the community. Engaged Learning. 3 semester credit hours.
Prerequisite or co-requisite: NRHL 3365.
NRHL 4375 Healthcare Policy, Regulation and Advocacy
Provides an overview of health care policy, organization, and financing with emphasis on industry trends. Current policy initiatives involving health care delivery as well as the role of the nurse leader and other stakeholders in shaping legislative change are analyzed. The impact of information and patient care technology and its effects on healthcare will be evaluated. Students will explore and define the role of the professional nurse in influencing and advocating for continuous quality improvement in healthcare delivery and healthcare policy formation. 3 semester credit hours.
Prerequisite NRHL 3330, NRHL 3335, NRHL 3340, and NRHL 3345.
Completion of this course with a grade of “B” or better is required to waive enrollment in NRHL 5505 for students admitted into the Benedictine University MSN Program.
NRHL 4392 Nurse Leadership and Interprofessional Collaboration
Provides the registered nurse with the opportunity to synthesize theory and concepts required to advance leadership and collaboration skills. A systems approach to deliver nursing care, manage and lead change, ensure quality and safety, and facilitate health promotion will be explored. Focus is placed on developing appreciation for the diversity of expertise in interprofessional collaborative teams as well as establishing basic concepts of effective teamwork. 3 semester credit hours.
Prerequisite: IDS 2201, IDS 3301, NRHL 3365, NRHL 3366 and NRHL 3375.
Completion of this course; in addition to NRHL 3365 with a grade of “B” or better is required to waive enrollment in NRHL 5501 for students admitted into the Benedictine University MSN Program.
NRHL 4394 Professional Practice in Leadership and Interprofessional Collaboration
Emphasis is placed on development of creative and innovative strategies and education to promote healthcare system change. Students demonstrate application of leadership skills and interprfessional collaboration through the completion of an immersion experience. This course includes 35 hours of clinical practice experience in a nursing leadership role. Engaged Learning. 3 semester credit hours.
Prerequisite or co-requisite: NRHL 4392.