Overview
NURS 612: Research and Quality Improvement for Nurse Practitioners is a core course in the Master of Nursing: Nurse Practitioner (MN-NP) program and supports you in developing competence in evaluating and applying research and clinical evidence to practice.
In this course, you will develop skills in sourcing, appraising, and translating evidence into clinical practice. You will also examine the role of nurse practitioners in quality improvement initiatives and apply tools and approaches to support practice change and improve health care outcomes.
Outline
NURS 612 is a paced course delivered over 13 weeks using a blended learning approach that combines asynchronous online learning and regular synchronous virtual sessions.
Course content focuses on the development of competencies required to evaluate and apply evidence in practice and to contribute to quality improvement initiatives. Emphasis is placed on the following:
- Principles of evidence-informed practice, including sourcing and appraisal of research evidence
- Interpretation and application of research findings to clinical decision-making
- Ethical and collaborative approaches to research and practice change
- Translation of evidence into practice, including implementation and evaluation of change
- Foundations of quality improvement, risk management, and system-level thinking
- Use of tools and strategies, including benchmarking, to support quality improvement and health system outcomes
Learning outcomes
After completing this course, you will be able to:
- Discuss the connection between knowledge and practice gaps and the application of research to NP practice;
- Locate, critically evaluate, and effectively summarize evidence;
- Apply ethical principles of research and demonstrate an understanding of collaborative research approaches.
- Identify barriers to and propose solutions for implementing research findings in practice;
- Explain core principles of quality improvement and risk management in healthcare;
- Apply quality improvement tools to identify system issues and improve service delivery;
- Describe best practices in benchmarking and environmental scanning to identify client and healthcare system needs.
Evaluation
Assessment in NURS 612 consists of multiple course activities with assigned percentage weightings. Your final grade is based on overall performance across all required assessments. A variety of assessment approaches are used to evaluate achievement of the course learning outcomes.
| Activity | Weight |
| Participation activities | 40% |
| Assessments | 60% |
| Total | 100% |
Materials
All learning materials will be available within the course. There is no textbook required for this course.