Home to more than 38 million people, California is hands-down the most populous state and third largest state by area in the United States. Positioned along the coastline of the sparkling Pacific Ocean, California is well-known nationwide for its sunny weather, pristine beaches, famous Hollywood celebrities, grape vineyards, surfing, Yosemite National Park, and some of the top-ranked universities in the nation. The following are the universities in California that have been accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) to award students MSN degrees in a variety of specialty areas.
Azusa Pacific University (“APU”)
School of Nursing (“SON”)
APU SON has a primary mission of advancing Christianity by imbuing its fundamental precepts into all aspects of nursing educational activities. Its efforts to further this aim are quite expansive and extend far beyond the classroom setting into community and church service, discipleship programs, and collaborative projects throughout the local Christian community. This multi-faceted campaign is motivated by a commitment to maximize students’ spiritual growth and motivation to develop and use dormant natural nursing talents to glorify God.
Adult Clinical Nurse Specialist (“CNS”) and Adult Nurse Practitioner (“ANP”)
This Master of Science in Nursing (“MSN”) degree curriculum consists of 54 to 57 credits in coursework designed to prepare Registered Nurses for advanced professional roles in adult healthcare. RNs who have previously earned an MSN at APU or any other accredited institution may opt for a Post-Master’s Certificate in the CNS and/or ANP subspecialty(ies).
Parent-Child CNS and Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (“PNP”)
This combined CNS/PNP MSN prepares RNs for an advanced level of effective practice in professional roles involving both children and their adult caretakers via a 58 to 60-credit curriculum. Licensed RNs who currently hold an MSN may obtain pre-certification training in one or both specialties via a Post-Master’s Certificate program.
School Nurse Services Credential (“SNSC”) and Family Nurse Practitioner (“FNP”)
This 58 to 60-credit combined MSN degree program features two primary focuses. SNSC curricular components impart theoretical knowledge and practical skills sets required to establish, operate, and orchestrate comprehensive K-12 public school health programs. An advanced FNP aspect includes instruction in diagnoses and treatment management and patient education, consultation, and advocacy.
School Nurse Services Credential SNSC and PNP
Students in this 56-credit combined SNSC/PNP MSN degree program participate in educational exercises that expand and optimize existing theoretical knowledge bases and practical skills essential to the establishment, maintenance, and coordination of comprehensive K-12 school health programs. An advanced PNP subspecialty component provides training in diagnostic and treatment protocols; client advocacy, education, and consultation; and, program planning and implementation.
Accreditations
Accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (“CCNE”) and the California Board of Registered Nursing (“CBRN”).
Contact
Annaliza Santos, MSN coordinator
Phone: (626) 815-6000, Ext. 5398
E-mail: [email protected]
Website URL – https://www.apu.edu/nursing/programs/masters-in-nursing/
California State University-Dominguez Hills – Carson (“CSUDHC”)
School of Nursing (“SON”)
CSUDHC SON’s mission is helping adult students build knowledge bases, develop skills, and cultivate internal values essential to optimize healthcare within communities of historically high cultural diversity. Faculty members fulfill that mission with high-quality instruction that emphasizes compassion, community collaboration, respect for individuality, and healthcare as a fundamental human right.
Those underlying ideologies fully align with SON’s philosophical view of healthcare as a self-propelled gamut that goes from birth to death. SON also views healthcare as a dynamic, global environment that subsume continuous mutual interactions of external and internal forces that affect individuals and entire societies. As such, SON places a high value on cost-efficient, high-quality healthcare service for all of mankind.
Matching Program Tracks
Family Nurse Practitioner -online
This Option is designed for nursing professionals who desire advanced practical skills development and knowledge acquisition. Required coursework includes subjects like Pharmacology, Health Assessment, Comprehensive Assessment, and the management of complex, chronic, and acute medical conditions throughout lifespans of multicultural patient populations. Two campus-based two-day sessions of FNP role option and advanced assessment classes are required.
Nurse Administrator (“NA”) – online
A competent command of advanced theoretical knowledge and practical skills required for effective functioning in an administrative capacity in nursing organizations at the staff, patient care, and institutional levels is the primary NA role option learning objective. Toward its fulfillment, students must complete at least 288 hours of supervised clinical training under the tutelage of an MSN administrator.
Nurse Educator (“NE”) – online
The primary NE Role Option learning outcome is competence in providing introductory nursing instruction for community college students, patients, or internal personnel. To facilitate its accomplishment, students must complete at 288 or more hours of clinical work in an appropriate clinical setting throughout two academic semesters.
Parent-Child Clinical Nurse Specialist (“PCCNS”) – online
This 37-credit NE subspecialty program anticipates the acquisition of high proficiency in evaluating and designing teaching strategies and methodologies most appropriate to specific clinical field(s). It also seeks to facilitate the student’s capacity to apply theoretical knowledge in practical educational settings via compulsory clinical practice of at least 288 hours over two semesters.
Accreditation
CCNE-accredited
Contact
Welch Hall
1000 E. Victoria Street
Carson, California 90747
Phone: (310) 243-3596
Website URL – https://www.csudh.edu/son/programs/msn/
California State University-Fresno (“CSUF”)
Department of Nursing (“DON”)
CSFU DON has a mission of offering quality nursing instruction to students at all degree levels. To enhance its efforts to advance this mission, the school employs specialized educational assessment tools to gauge academic progress in an objective empirical metrics to ensure accurate analyses.
Each specialty MSN degree program discussed below is thoroughly scrutinized frequently to ensure consistent quality and alignment with established national standards of nursing education and applicable guidelines for the academic preparation of professional nurses.
Matching Program Tracks
Clinical Nurse Specialist/Nurse Educator (“CNS/NE”)
This 44-credit CNS/NE program is available in two options: Adult-Gero CNS/Nurse Educator and Pediatric CNS/Nurse Educator. All CNS/NE students receive preparation for professional leadership roles that require an advanced level of knowledge, competency, and skill in a highly specialized clinical nursing field of their choosing. Major examples include clinical practice, research, consultation, and educator positions in the nursing profession.
Primary Care/Family Nurse Practitioner (“PC/FNP”)
This 40-credit MSN program has a primary purpose of preparing primary care specialty nurses to increase overall accessibility and quality of primary healthcare in Central San Joaquin Valley. Its curriculum includes classroom and clinical education with focuses of health maintenance, management, assessment, and promotion in rural practice settings of cultural diversity.
Primary Care/Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (“PC/PNP”)
Like its above-discussed closely-related academic compatriot, this PC/PNP MSN degree program has a main purpose of preparing nurses to become primary healthcare practitioners devoted to enhancing the general quality and accessibility of primary medical care throughout the Central San Joaquin Valley area. Its instructional focuses are also identical, except for an emphasis on children as the main patient population instead of adults.
Accreditation
CCNE-accredited
Contact
Department of Nursing
2345 E. San Ramon
M/S MH25
Fresno, CA 93740
Phone: (559) 278-2041
Website URL – http://www.fresnostate.edu/chhs/nursing/degrees-programs/graduate/index.html
California State University – Fullerton (“CSUFU”)
School of Nursing
CSUFU SON has a mission to maintain a strong commitment to its constant strive to provide the best nursing education in the nation to a multicultural student body. It exerts extensive efforts to epitomize educational excellence as a beacon that attracts the attention and lightens every path of entry for the best and brightest minds in Academia.
Matching Program Tracks
Nursing Leadership (“MSN/Leadership”)
This 40-credit MSN/leadership program provides both theoretical and practical instruction to students with a primary emphasis of systemic-level healthcare leadership. It does so by synthesizing nursing conceptual principles such as science, teaching, business administration, human resource management, program evaluation, healthcare economics, and strategic healthcare organizational management. A comprehensive thesis or other empirical research project is required for program completion.
School Nursing Services Credential (“SNSC”)
CSUFU offers this program as post-MSN credential. Most required course assignments are researched and submitted online, except for occasional in-person class sessions and a portion of mandatory practicum participation. All instruction focuses on provided an advanced level of nursing education for school health RNs, with an emphasis on professional autonomy skill development.
Women’s Health Care – Nurse Midwifery
The main learning objective of this MSN program is meeting women’s primary ambulatory healthcare needs via collaboration with other medical professions within diverse practice settings. Prominent examples are hospitals, community health agencies, outpatient care clinics, and private practitioners’ offices. Primary program emphasis is knowledge and practical experience acquisition in full-lifespan women’s healthcare, especially in outpatient clinical settings.
Women’s Health Care – Nurse Practitioner
This MSN degree program also prepares students to assume professional roles of responsibility as primary healthcare provider to women patients, in collaboration with other medical practitioners in diverse clinical settings. Its primary emphasis is knowledge and experiential acquisition in healthcare service provision to pregnant patient populations. Major instructional topics include neonatal care, family planning, and well woman gynecology.
Accreditation
CCNE-accredited
Contact
Education Classroom (EC) Building Room 182
Phone: (657) 278-3217
Email: [email protected]
Website URL – http://nursing.fullerton.edu/prospectiveStudent/
California State University – Long Beach (“CSULB”)
School of Nursing
CSULB SON has a vision of becoming the nation’s premier university professional nursing education provider. Its mission is to maintain learner-centric programs that aim to train students in becoming high-caliber nursing professionals within diverse community practice environments.
Matching Program Tracks
Adult Clinical Nurse Specialist (“ACNS”)
This 47 to 48-unit MSN program expands students’ ranges of advance nursing practices applicable to acute and chronic healthcare settings. It was also constructed with a deliberate design of flexibility to enable student self-identification and self-definition of ideal clinical specialization in either oncology, respiratory, perioperative, neurological, cardiovascular, or other medical surgery nursing specialties.
Adult-Geriatric Nurse Practitioner (“AGNP”)
This 47 to 48-unit curriculum is a post-MSN specialty program designed to broaden the student’s scope of acute care nursing practices. Its main learning objectives are collaborative and leadership skills development for advanced nursing practice in clinic, hospital, and community health settings.
Family Nurse Practitioner
This FNP program offered by CSULB SON is widely regarded as one of the best of its kind. Students receive advanced instruction designed to impart exceptional professional expertise in adult, women’s healthcare, and pediatric clinical nursing practice. Besides 38 to 39 credits of traditional coursework, program completion requires at least 576 hours of supervised clinical work in ambulatory family nursing.
MSN/MPH
This 57-unit joint degree program offers students an opportunity to expand occupational horizons in a condensed time frame by fulfilling academic perquisites of two harmonious nursing specializations. Upon program completion, new MSN/MPH graduates emerge from commencement exercises with a high degree of expertise in public health and nursing in the contexts of education, research, clinical practice, administrative, and consulting.
Pediatric Nurse Practitioner
SON anticipates an advanced level of primary healthcare knowledge and skill acquisition essential to providing competent nursing care to infants, children, and adolescents by PNP MSN students. It also expects those same scholars to possess superior expertise in chronic and acute pediatric healthcare upon completing the 44 to 45 credits of rigorous coursework and 755 hours of mandatory clinical practice.
Psychiatric-Mental Nurse Practitioner
SON designed its 38-credit PMHNP curriculum to provide a comprehensive advanced education in all aspects of psychiatric clinical healthcare practice, research, clinical management, and culturally sensitive healthcare. An extensive mandatory course menu that includes topics like Diversity and Psychosocial Issues in Advanced Nursing Practice and Healthcare Economics is sure to satiate the most voracious hunger for knowledge.
Women’s Health Care Nurse Practitioner
Until recently, this program existed only through the joint efforts of CSULB SON and Harbor/UCLA. Currently, however, CSULB offers its own complete accredited degree program in this MSN specialty. During the course of studies to satisfy the 41 to 42-unit curriculum requirements, students gain advanced knowledge of clinical practice, management, and research areas related to nursing.
Accreditation
CCNE-accredited
Contact
Savitri Singh-Carlson, Graduate Program Director
Nursing Building (NUR), Room 60H
1250 Bellflower Boulevard
Long Beach, CA 90840
Phone: (562) 985‑4463
Website URL – https://www.csulb.edu/college-of-health-human-services/school-of-nursing/graduate-programs
California State University – Los Angeles (“CSULA”)
(50 + 500) 9
School of Nursing
CSULA SON has a mission of preparing students to become skillful, knowledgeable, innovative, compassionate leaders in the nursing profession who provide competent healthcare to multicultural patient populations within a wide variety of practice settings. It accomplishes this agenda by integrating scholarship, instructional, and practice elements into a comprehensive scheme of interdisciplinary nursing education.
Matching Program Tracks
Family Nurse Practitioner
This 75-unit FNP degree program provides a haven of intellectual stimulation for culturally diverse student-faculty collaboration to enhance ethnical minority representation within the primary healthcare nursing profession and access to that same service by the same patient populations. Special program emphases include prevention and management of common acute diseases; individual, family, and global healthcare perspectives; and chronic healthcare management among a broad cross-section of culturally diverse clientele bases and practice settings.
Nurse Practitioner – Primary & Acute Adult (“ACNP”)
Students in the ACNP MSN degree program receive thorough preparation and comprehensive education in providing competent healthcare services to acutely ill adult patients across a broad range of practice settings. All curricular components place special emphases on empirical research, evidence-based nursing practices, and holistic healthcare approaches.
Nurse Practitioner – Psychiatric & Mental Health
This 73 to 78-unit MSN Option has a stated purpose of preparing nurses for advanced practice within psychiatric and mental healthcare settings. Common professional employment scenarios for graduates are psychiatric pharmaceutical managerial positions, hospital psychiatric wards, long-term residential psychiatric facilities, and private psychotherapy practice. During compulsory clinical program participation, students perform supervisory case management functions to enable full assimilation of psychological theory into actual practice environments.
Nursing Education
Cultivating a competent level of knowledge and practical skill sets essential for all effective nursing educators is the stated purpose of this 49 to 54-unit MSN degree program. To ensure accomplishment of this ambitious academic feat, curricular requirements include participation in both clinical teaching and classroom environments in addition to theory instruction.
Accreditation
CCNE-accredited
Contact
Jennifer Romero, Student Services Professional
MSN & Post Master’s Graduate Programs
Simpson Tower 415
5151 State University Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90032
Phone: (323) 343-4730
E-mail: [email protected]
Website URL – http://www.calstatela.edu/hhs/nursing/graduate-and-certificate-programs
California State University – Sacramento (“CSUS”)
School of Nursing
CSUS SON has a mission to provide exemplary and innovative nursing education to prepare students for professional practice that adequately meets the needs of diverse patient populations. The school subscribes to the philosophy that a learning environment of mutual knowledge pursuit by faculty and students alike is the highest form of public service, provided all activities remain guided by:
• Caring
• Professionalism
• Integrity
• Diversity
• Innovation
Matching Program Tracks
Advanced Clinical Role
This MSN Role Option program requires successful completion of a minimum 33-credit coursework curriculum that includes 15 credits in core subjects, 15 credits in related general subjects, and a 3-hour supervised clinical internship for degree conferral. Although designed to be a six-semester part-time program, alternative scheduling may be arranged with prior Academic Adviser approval.
School of Nursing
This one-year MSN credential program is designed for RNs with an interest in providing effective healthcare within the California school system. To prepare these nursing professionals for this important role, SON provides a concentrated curriculum of advanced coursework to build applicable knowledge bases and skills. Educational content is delivered via a hybridized format comprised primarily of online learning and two on-campus classes each academic term.
Accreditation
CCNE-accredited
Contact
Admissions
Lassen Hall 1102
6000 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95819
Phone: (916) 278-6011
Website URL – https://www.csus.edu/college/health-human-services/nursing/graduate-program.html
California State University-San Marcos (“CSUSM”)
School of Nursing
The faculty and staff at CSUSM SON are on a cohesive collective mission of preparing students for nursing careers by providing educational focuses of enabling patients to recover and/or maintain optimal health and sickness-to-wellness healthcare approaches. While striving toward this objective, these dedicated educators and supportive personnel instill a philosophy of appreciation and tolerance for ethnic and cultural diversity in aspiring nurses.
Matching Program Tracks
Master of Science in Nursing
This MSN program has strong focuses on theoretical knowledge acquisition through research inquiry. In so doing, it aims to assist students in expounding upon existing knowledge bases acquired via undergraduate nursing education to promote outstanding graduate scholarship and lifelong learning. Three MSN concentrations are available and include:
• Advanced Practice Nursing
• Clinical Nurse Leader
• Nursing Educator
Accreditation
CCNE-accredited
Contact
School of Nursing
CSU San Marcos
333 S. Twin Oaks Valley Rd.
San Marcos, CA 92096
Phone: (760) 750-7550
Website URL – http://www.csusm.edu/nursing/index.html