Purdue University

Nursing Programs Offered

MSN Program Details

The Master of Science (MS) Degree with a Major in Nursing and Adult Nurse Practitioner specialization (MS/ANP) develops leadership and practice skills necessary to shape nursing practice in a dynamic, complex, and globally interdependent healthcare system.

The graduate program offers an innovative approach to advanced practice education by integrating expertise from other disciplines, (medicine, pharmacy, gerontology, audiology, speech pathology, social work, physical and occupational therapy).

The MS programs feature:

-Multidisciplinary study in a 630-hour preceptorship.
-Access to practice two nurse-managed clinics.
-Research opportunities on the Purdue West Lafayette campus.
-Option to take electives in the multidisciplinary gerontology program.
-A post-master's Adult Nurse Practitioner Certificate is available for students who have a master's in nursing. Required courses are individualized, based on previous master's curriculum.

Accelerated BSN Program Details

The Second Degree Accelerated Baccalaureate Program in Nursing is designed specifically for men and women who hold a baccalaureate degree in another field and want to pursue a BS in Nursing degree. This full-time program consists of two parts:

-Prenursing requirements (28 credits) in the physical and social sciences, mathematics, and humanities. These may be completed full time or part time at Purdue University or other institutions. Students may already have earned some of these credits.
-Nursing requirements (59 credits), including both theory and clinical. These may be earned only at the Purdue University School of Nursing as a full-time student.

Applicants are admitted to Purdue University School of Nursing's Accelerated Program once each year. Participants will be admitted to the nursing coursework in May, complete coursework in August of the following year, be eligible for graduation from Purdue University in August, and be eligible to take the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN). The Second Degree Accelerated Baccalaureate Program in Nursing leads to a bachelor of science (BS) in Nursing degree.

It is the mission of the Purdue University School of Nursing's baccalaureate program to prepare a generalist practitioner capable of providing professional nursing care to individuals and families with diverse health needs in a variety of settings. This program provides a sound foundation for you to obtain leadership skills, utilizing nursing research in the clinical setting, and for pursuing graduate education in nursing. Provision is made for smooth transition from second degree to the School of Nursing's advanced practice programs (Master of Science with ANP specialization and Doctor of Nursing Practice programs).

This baccalaureate program promotes a climate that recognizes each person's past experiences and builds on those strengths. It provides a more realistic career change that can be made without you having to enroll in a 2-year associate degree program, a 3-year diploma program, or go the full four years in a traditional baccalaureate program. A 2-year associate degree or 3-year diploma in nursing will not enable you to pursue graduate school, while our Second-degree program will.

The great variety of educational and life experiences which the students can share with each other and faculty can enhance knowledge and practice of all concerned, as well as provide faculty with continued stimulation and challenge.

-There are strong academic and clinical faculty members to teach the didactic, clinical, and research components of the program.
-The student has the flexibility of leaving the program after a baccalaureate degree is completed.
-Clinical experiences are in culturally diverse local (Delphi/Family Health Clinic of Carroll County), national (Native American reservations) and international settings (Nursing Students Without Borders projects in Mexico, the Brigada de Salud project in Honduras, and the World Health Organization Collaborating Center affiliation).
-Students will have access to multidisciplinary faculty and researchers in a specified area of research.

Due to the intensive nature of the coursework, students are strongly encouraged not to have outside employment during the accelerated program.

Doctor of Nursing Practice Program Details

The Doctor of Nursing Practice Program delivers an innovative curriculum from post-baccalaureate to doctorate, emphasizing healthcare engineering and interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty, hospitals, community leaders, and policy makers.

This DNP program is uniquely situated to provide leadership in solving complex clinical problems through its partnership with the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering, the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, the Purdue University Homeland Security Institute, and the Center on Aging and the Life Course.

The program of study centers on knowledge and skill building in the areas of scholarly practice, practice improvement, innovation and testing of care delivery models, evaluation of health outcomes, health policy, leadership in healthcare delivery and quality improvement, and clinical expertise for advanced nursing education.

The DNP allows for three types of prospective students: post-baccalaureate RNs, current MS in nursing students, and advanced practice nurses who have completed their MS degrees.

The post-baccalaureate program incorporates the existing MS curriculum, which totals 46-49 credit hours, and incorporates the AACN's (1996) recommended thematic areas of Graduate Nursing Core, Advanced Practice Nursing Core, and Specialty Core. These hours are added to 37 credit hours in the DNP to total 83 post-baccalaureate semester credit hours. Included are 630 hours of supervised clinical preceptorship (MS program) and an 896-hour residency (DNP program) for a total of 1,526 hours of supervised clinical practice, a health policy residency, and cognate residencies.

Unique features of the Purdue DNP nursing program include:

Purdue University/West Lafayette Interdisciplinary Collaborators: Health Sciences, Health and Kinesiology, Pharmacy, Gerontology, Health Communication, Krannert School of Management, Computer Technology, Homeland Security, and the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering. This collaboration offers many opportunities for innovative projects.
Implementation of collaborative practice team education and internships in which DNP students, engineering graduate students, and others share coursework and work together on major internship experiences that research and implement evidence-based practice.
Advanced information technology and Computer Sciences to improve quality of healthcare delivery systems.
Access to multidisciplinary faculty and researchers in specified areas of clinical research.
Clinical preceptorship with multidisciplinary teams caring for underserved populations in rural and urban healthcare settings.
Strategic leadership opportunities in the school's nurse-managed clinics as well as HMO's and local/regional healthcare facilities.
Opportunity to tailor cognate courses in areas of sub-specialization such as rural health, pharmacology, practice design and management, or public health/homeland security.
Sequential curriculum design, post-baccalaureate to DNP, emphasizing health promotion, disease prevention, chronic disease management, and evidence-based practice.
Flexibility of leaving the program after the master's degree is completed and re-entry for the last two years at a later date.
Opportunity for part-time study, which allows you to maintain professional employment while pursuing an advanced degree.