Master's in Nursing: Health Systems and Organizational Leadership
![A nursing faculty member teaches to students in a classroom setting.](/sites/default/files/2024-08/SON-HSOL-teaching.jpg)
Our Health System and Organizational Leadership (HSOL) program features:
• Nationally and globally recognized faculty and preceptors experienced in health systems and organization leadership
• Flexible, leading-edge, online curriculum
• No GRE requirement
• Full and part-time options— the full-time option is 6 quarters over 19 months with 47 quarter credits (which is equivalent to 31 semester credits)
We believe that all nurses are leaders and our HSOL program will ensure you become the best leader. Our courses are based on ANA, AACN, and AONL manager and leader competencies to ensure you are on the leading edge of evidence-based management and leadership practices.
Through your practicum, you will have opportunities to work with senior leadership in major health systems, obtain real-world experiences, and apply your newfound education and skills to solve health system issues today.
Support career advancement for nurse leaders.
The HSOL online program prepares nurses for management and leadership roles in various organizational settings, from acute care to primary care, community, rural, and long-term care, and the board room, to name a few. Skills gained will allow nurses to lead in middle and front-line manager positions, quality improvement, project management, and other positions. Nurses will learn about complex, dynamic healthcare delivery systems, creating sustainable organizations, how to leverage the legislative and regulatory environment, and how to create systems of well-being for patients and staff.
The general competencies that must be met for the master of nursing program are:
- Apply advanced knowledge in the science of a specialty area of advanced nursing practice.
- Use emerging information and health technologies to access current research and health care data to improve patient care.
- Make sound, culturally appropriate, and ethically grounded clinical judgments based on critical analysis of the best available evidence.
- Demonstrate the leadership skills that are essential for influencing policy and organizational systems for improving patient outcomes.
Graduates of the Health Systems & Organizational Leadership Online Program are prepared to:
1. Demonstrate the leadership skills essential for influencing organizational policy and improving patient care outcomes
2. Apply advanced knowledge of nursing, organizational behavior, and systems theories to positively impact organizational, care delivery and policy outcomes at a population level.
3. Integrate nursing and health systems knowledge in leading and advocating for the design, implementation, and improvement of sustainable person-center interprofessional practice models.
4. Use information, quality science, and knowledge management tools to make sound and ethical decisions that advance interprofessional and collaborative health services practice.
Completing the D.N.P. degree
For students wishing to complete the D.N.P. degree, an Executive Leadership D.N.P. post-master's program will be coming soon. The expected matriculation date is Fall 2025.
Practicum Experiences
The Graduate Capstone Practicum is a culminating experience designed to provide students with an opportunity to apply nursing leadership knowledge and skills acquired throughout the program of study, focusing on the competencies of the graduate-level nurse leader. The experience will involve a project related to a professional nursing phenomenon of interest, such as, but not limited to, direct patient care issues, quality/process improvement, healthcare policy, or nursing administration.
In the Master's in Nursing: Health Systems & Organizational Leadership (HSOL) program, you will earn 320 hours of practicum experience. These hours can be counted as supervised practice hours towards the Doctor of Nursing Practice Practicum requirements of 1000 practice hours. For every 1 credit hour of practicum, you will complete 40 hours of practice. These credits are taken in the second year.
In the event of using your place of work for your practicum activity, you may not conduct “work as usual” when you are logging in these practice hours. Rather, your practice hours are in addition to the hours of work that you are doing for your job. We have you track your activities in our Analytic Log associated with the NURS 509MC Practicum/Capstone: Transition to Leading and Managing Change (8 credits) and as outlined by your supervising faculty. This practicum experience allows you to practice, synthesize, apply, analyze and evaluate new knowledge gained from your academic study into your practice.
![Course Catalog](/sites/default/files/2019-03/catalog-icon.png)
For all program specifics, Student Learning Outcomes and detailed school information, check out the School of Nursing Catalog/Student Handbook.
Have questions?
- Request information
- Attend an information session
- Schedule an appointment with an admissions counselor
- Contact our admissions team
Scholarships available
OHSU offers a variety of scholarships that can help fund your education.