Credit Hour Allocation:: 1 semester credit hour

Clock Hour Allocation:: 1 seminar hour/week

Prerequisites: Admission to the doctoral program

This course will focus on the professional and ethical roles and responsibilities of the Clinical Nurse Scientist in advancing the discipline of nursing through the generation of clinical knowledge, discovery and theory development. Participants will explore potential settings for practice which are traditional such as academic health centers as well as emerging venues. Discussions about issues that may affect the Clinical Nurse Scientist in developing lifelong career/scholarship trajectories will occur.

Credit Hour Allocation:: 2 semester hours

Clock Hour Allocation:: 2 clock hours - seminar

Prerequisites: Study of advanced professional issues, roles, socialization.

The focus of this course is on articulating the difference in models of knowing, and on analyzing the role of science and the role of scientists in society. Emphasis is on the process of analysis, the ability to present the pros and cons of current and anticipated ethical issues influencing specific clinical situations, and on development and use of technologies in health care.

Credit Hour Allocation:: 2 semester hours

Clock Hour Allocation:: 2 clock hours - seminar

Prerequisites: Graduate standing

The focus of this course is on the ethical imperative/implications in the role of the clinical nurse scientist. Current ethical theories are critiqued and the ethical implications of the major research paradigms are evaluated. Ethical issues arising from selected theoretical/research approaches are examined.

Credit Hour Allocation:: 3 semester hours

Clock Hour Allocation:: 3 semester hours class

Prerequisites: NURS 6225 Philosophy of Nursing Science; NURS 6226 Ethics of Nursing Science; NURS 6374 Nursing: Quantitative Research Methods I; NURS 7310 Theory Development, Analysis & Evaluation in Nursing; NURS 7380 Qualitative Inquiry for Clinical Nursing Research; NURS 6375 Regression Models in Nursing Science;

Co-requisites: NURS 7381 Nursing: Synthesis and Application of Clinical Research

This course presents modern and classical psychometrics for nursing science from the perspective of item response theory. Most of the course will cover classical test theory from the perspective of modern test theory. An introduction to binary item response theory will also be presented. The course will emphasize applications within the context of modern psychometric principles.

Credit Hour Allocation:: 3 semester hours

Clock Hour Allocation:: 3 clock hours - class

Prerequisites: Graduate standing

This course is an introduction to research designs for causal inference. Experimental, quasi-experimental, and observational designs will be presented and evaluated for internal, external, construct, and statistical validity. Issues regarding sampling, measurement, randomization, treatment, and control will be addressed. The rationale for drawing causal inferences will be thoroughly explored.

Credit Hour Allocation:: 3 semester hours

Clock Hour Allocation:: 3 semester hours - class

Prerequisites: Graduate standing

This course presents regression analysis at an intermediate level. Course will focus on regression for continuous variables: specification, estimation, testing, and diagnostics. Logistic regression for binomial and multinomial variables, log-linear regression for count variables, and proportional hazards regression for duration variables will be explored. An introduction to multilevel regression will occur.

Credit Hour Allocation:: 3 semester credit hours

Clock Hour Allocation:: 3 clock hours/week

Prerequisites: NURS 6374 Nursing: Quantitative Research Methods I; NURS 7380 Qualitative Inquiry for Clinical Nursing Research

This course will cover the use of mixed methods, quantitative and qualitative, to address complex research questions in nursing and health care. Problems of trying to merge methods and practical strategies for accomplishing this successfully, as well as paradigmatic issues, will be discussed. The student will use prior products developed in quantitative and qualitative methods classes to devise a mixed method proposal that that integrates readings on mixed methods with the student’s own research interests.

Credit Hour Allocation:: 3 semester hours

Clock Hour Allocation:: 3 clock hours - class

Prerequisites: Masters level theory/research; Pre or Co-requisite: NURS 6225 Philosophy of Nursing Science; NURS 6226 Ethics of Nursing Science

This course provides opportunity to study a system for the development of nursing science through middle-range theory development. Learning activities include engaging in strategies for concept, statement clarification, and theory clarification. Students and faculty will dialog about theory application, theory construction, evaluation, and clinical testing of theory. The relationship between research and clinical practice to theory generation and testing is explored. The student and faculty will gain practice in strategies for middle-range theory building.

Credit Hour Allocation:: 3 semester hours

Clock Hour Allocation:: 3 clock hours - class

Prerequisites: NURS 6225 Philosophy of Nursing Science; NURS 6226 Ethics of Nursing Science; NURS 7310 Theory Development, Analysis & Evaluation in Nursing (Prerequisite or concurrent)

This course will introduce students to qualitative inquiry as an approach to knowledge discovery applicable to clinical nursing research. Students will analyze, compare and contrast a variety of qualitative approaches including philosophical underpinnings, methodologies and applications. Those approaches may include: Phenomenology, ethnography, /grounded theory, case study, historical research, naturalistic inquiry, interpretive analysis, and, action research, focus group methods. Students will utilize criteria for evaluating qualitative research reports to critique qualitative research studies. Students will analyze the relationship between a clinical problem and specific research methods. They will develop research questions and analyze their applicability to specific clinical issues and will learn varied strategies for collecting and analyzing qualitative research data.

Credit Hour Allocation:: 3 semester hours

Clock Hour Allocation:: 3 clock hours/week

Prerequisites: NURS 6225 Philosophy of Nursing Science; NURS 6226 Ethics of Nursing Science; NURS 7310 Theory Development, Analysis & Evaluation in Nursing; NURS 6374 Nursing: Quantitative Research Methods I; NURS 6375 Regression Models in Nursing Science; NURS 6105 Role of the Clinical Nurse Scientist

This course integrates the dynamic elements of clinical practice, theory, and research to prepare doctoral students to function effectively in the synthesis and application of clinical research. This course provides guided direction in the processes used for dissertation development and grant application proposals. Students will be actively involved in the critique and analysis of published literature and other students’ dissertation proposals, grant applications, and manuscripts.

Credit Hour Allocation:: 3 semester hours

Clock Hour Allocation:: 3 semester hours class

Prerequisites: Intermediate Statistics

This course presents structural equation modeling (SEM) for nursing science. The course will begin with a review of regression from an SEM perspective. The first major topic of the course will be path analysis, including model specification, methods of estimation, recursive and non-recursive models, direct, indirect, and total effects, methods of estimation, single and multi-group analyses, moderators and mediators, and the assessment of causality. The second major topic will be psychometrics from an SEM perspective, including congeneric test theory, reliability and stability, convergent and discriminant validity, and confirmatory factor analysis. The third major topic will combine the first two into structural equations, including model specification and identification, methods of estimation, second-order factor analysis, and the assessment of causal structure.

Credit Hour Allocation:: 3 semester hours

Clock Hour Allocation:: 3 clock hours/week

Prerequisites: NURS 6225 Philosophy of Nursing Science; NURS 6226 Ethics of Nursing Science; NURS 6374 Nursing: Quantitative Research Methods I; NURS 7380 Qualitative Inquiry for Clinical Nursing Research

This course is designed to provide students an opportunity to conceptualize a research problem from a qualitative perspective, to study one specific method (grounded theory, ethnography, phenomenology, hermeneutics), and to practice qualitative approaches to data collection and analysis in that method. Students will have opportunities to write a mini-proposal guided by a qualitative research question and leading to a specific qualitative research approach to the problem. There will be opportunities for participating in Mock reviews of qualitative research proposals (either as investigator or reviewer). Students will learn the IRB approval process with qualitative proposals and will have opportunities to develop pilot research strategies building to a dissertation proposal. Strategies will include interviewing, focus group, or participant observation following the selected method. Through this process students will practice and learn strategies and processes for conceptualizing and implementing a qualitative study guided by a specific qualitative methodology.