Professional Nursing Curriculum - Program Learning Outcomes and Conceptual Threads

Subject: Academic Affairs

Policy: PROFESSIONAL NURSING CURRICULA - PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES AND CONCEPTUAL THREADS

Revised: December 2020; September 13, 2022, Spring 2026

Effective date: 2021; June 1, 2026

Review date: 2029

Responsible Party: Level I: UAAC & GAAC; Level II: Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

Introduction and Purpose

The Montana State University Mark & Robyn Jones College of Nursing is committed to meeting its land grant mission to enhance the health of the people of Montana, our nation, and the global community by providing leadership for professional nursing through excellence in education, scholarship, practice, and service.

Policy

To provide excellence in education, the undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate curricula are founded on the transformative learning theory which emphasizes critical reflection, self-reflection and dialogue, and the AACN Essentials (2026) and/or other relevant accreditation or national certification standards including the Core Competencies for Basic Midwifery Practice (ACNM, 2025) and Criteria for Accreditation of Midwifery Education Programs (ACME, 2025) and Standards for Quality Nurse Practitioner Education (NTF, 2022). A competency-based educational approach is incorporated in the MRJCON curricula to ensure students graduate with the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes necessary to provide evidence based, competent, compassionate, and culturally sensitive nursing care for individuals, families, and communities. Students will achieve these through diverse clinical experiences within the spheres of health promotion/disease prevention, chronic, acute, and palliative care. 

The following formative, entry level, and advanced-level program learning outcomes are adapted from the AACN Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education (2026) and/or other relevant accreditation or national certification standards which provide a strong foundation of the nursing discipline, liberal education, and principles of competency-based education. The outcomes are established to assess student learning and are designed to be applicable across four spheres of care (prevention/promotion of health and wellbeing, chronic illness care, critical/trauma care, and hospice/palliative care), throughout the lifespan, and with diverse patient populations.

Domain 1: Knowledge for Nursing Practice 

Integration, translation, and application of established and evolving disciplinary nursing knowledge and ways of knowing, as well as knowledge from other disciplines, including a foundation in liberal arts and sciences. This distinguishes the practice of professional nursing and forms the basis for clinical judgment and innovation in nursing practice.

Formative Learning Outcome

After completing the first two semesters of the BSN program, students will apply knowledge, skills, and technology from the established and evolving art and science of nursing as well as the biological, social, and behavioral sciences using the nursing process to support clinical judgment in the delivery of care.

Entry Level Learning Outcome

Students completing our BSN program will synthesize knowledge, skills, and technology from the established and evolving art and science of nursing, as well as the biological, social and behavioral sciences, to apply critical thinking and the nursing process to support clinical judgment in the delivery of care.

Advanced Level Learning Outcome

Students completing a graduate nursing program will evaluate, integrate, translate, and apply evidence from nursing science and other disciplines in the delivery of care.

Domain 2: Person-Centered Care

Person-centered care focuses on the individual within multiple complicated contexts, including family and/or important others. Person-centered care is holistic, individualized, just, respectful, compassionate, coordinated, evidence- based and developmentally appropriate. Person-centered care builds on a scientific body of knowledge that guides nursing practice regardless of specialty or functional area.

Formative Learning Outcome

After completing the first two semesters of the BSN program, students will establish therapeutic relationships with clients to identify individual preferences, values, needs, resources, and health determinants of health to provide evidence-based, holistic, compassionate, and respectful person-centered care.

Entry-Level Learning Outcome

Students completing our BSN program will provide evidence-based, holistic, compassionate, and person-centered care respectful of the preferences, values, needs, resources, and determinants of health unique to and in partnership with the client, identified support persons and the health-care team.

Advanced Level Learning Outcome

Students completing a graduate nursing program will create, communicate, and evaluate person-centered care that includes holistic, individualized, just, culturally aware, respectful, compassionate, coordinated, evidence-based and developmentally appropriate.

Domain 3: Population Health

Population health spans the healthcare delivery continuum from public health prevention to disease management of populations and describes collaborative activities with both traditional and non-traditional partnerships from affected communities, public health, industry health care, local government entities, and others for high-quality, safe, and accessible patient care for all populations.

Formative Learning Outcome

After completing the first two semesters of the BSN program, students will identify the impact of social determinants of health on individuals, families, and populations.

Entry-Level Learning Outcome

Students completing our BSN program will promote health equity through advocacy, health promotion, community resource partnerships, and disease prevention strategies at the individual, family, community, and population levels with consideration of social determinants of health.        

Advanced Level Learning Outcome

Students completing the graduate nursing program will analyze current population health gaps and create and evaluate cost-effective, evidence-based interventions to meet the needs of the target population.

Domain 4: Scholarship for the Nursing Discipline

The generation, synthesis, translation, application, and dissemination of nursing knowledge to improve health and transform health care.

Formative Learning Outcome

After completing the first two semesters of the BSN program, students will develop a sense of inquiry, acquire and critically appraise relevant evidence, and integrate best evidence with clinical expertise and client preferences.

Entry-Level Learning Outcome

Students completing our BSN program will demonstrate the ability to synthesize, translate, apply, and disseminate nursing knowledge to improve health outcomes.

Advanced Level Learning Outcome

Students completing a graduate nursing program will advance the scholarship of nursing through the integration of best evidence and ethical conduct of scholarly activities.

Domain 5: Safety and Quality

Employment of established and emerging principles of safety and improvement science. Quality and safety, as core values of nursing practice, enhance quality and minimize risk of harm to patients and providers through both system effectiveness and individual performance.

Formative Learning Outcome

After completing the first two semesters of the BSN program, students will apply principles of safety and quality improvement in the delivery of care.

Entry-Level Learning Outcome

Students completing our BSN program will integrate principles of safety and quality improvement into the delivery of high-quality care to individuals, families, communities, and populations.

Advanced Level Learning Outcome

Students completing a graduate nursing program will employ improvement science to ensure system effectiveness for safe, person-centered care within a physically, psychologically, secure, and just environment.

Domain 6: Interprofessional Partnership

Intentional collaboration across professions and with care team members, patients, families, and communities to optimize care, enhance the healthcare experience, and strengthen outcomes.

Formative Learning Outcome

After completing the first two semesters of the BSN program, students will participate as a member of an interprofessional team to explore the effects of collaboration and communication on the patient experience, safety, outcomes, and costs of care.

Entry-Level Learning Outcome

Students completing our BSN program will demonstrate collaborative interprofessional communication and practice to optimize the patient experience, safety, improve outcomes and reduce costs.

Advanced Level Learning Outcome

Students completing a graduate nursing program will collaborate across professions and with other stakeholders to optimized care, enhance the healthcare experience, and strengthen outcomes.

Domain 7: System Based Practice

Responding to and leading within complex systems of health care. Nurse effectively and proactively coordinates resources to provide safe, high-quality, and accessible care to diverse populations.

Formative Learning Outcome

After completing the first two semesters of the BSN program, students will demonstrate system awareness, fiscal prudence, and equity in the care across all populations.

Entry-Level Learning Outcome

After completing the BSN program, students will apply knowledge of systems, cost-effectiveness, and regulation to plan, provide, and evaluate care.

Advanced Level Learning Outcome

Students completing a graduate nursing program will coordinate the resources of the complex healthcare system to provide safe, high-quality, and accessible care across all populations.

Domain 8: Information and Healthcare Technologies

Information and communication technologies and informatics processes are used to provide care, gather data, form information to drive decision making, and support professionals as they expand knowledge and wisdom for practice. Informatics processes and technologies are used to manage and improve the delivery of safe, high-quality, and efficient healthcare services in accordance with best practice and professional and regulatory standards.

Formative Learning Outcome

After completing the first two semesters of the BSN program, students will employ communication and technology to plan, provide, and evaluate care.

Entry-Level Learning Outcome

Students completing our BSN program will function as effective users of information and communication technologies to deliver evidence-based care in accordance with regulatory and institutional policies.

Advanced Level Learning Outcome

Students completing a graduate nursing program will use information and communication technology to anticipate, manage and improve healthcare in accordance with best practice and professional and regulatory standards.

Domain 9: Professionalism and Professional Identify Formation

Formation and cultivation of a sustainable professional identity, including accountability, perspective, collaborative disposition, and comportment, that reflects nursing’s characteristics and values.

Formative Learning Outcome

After completing the first two semesters of the BSN program students will examine ethical decision making in nursing practice in a variety of settings.

Entry-Level Learning Outcome

After completing the BSN program, students will apply principles of professional nursing ethics, accountability, and respect in the care of diverse populations.

Advanced Level Learning Outcome

Students completing a graduate nursing program will model a sustainable professional identity of accountability, ethical comportment, and collaborative disposition.

Domain 10: Personal, Professional, and Leadership Development

Participation in activities and self-reflection that fosters personal health, resilience, and well-being; contribute to life-long learning; and support the acquisition of nursing expertise and the assertion of leadership.

Formative Learning Outcome

After completing the first two semesters of the BSN program, students will identify areas of personal strengths and weaknesses related to resilience, well-being, leadership, and career-long learning.

Entry-Level Learning Outcome

Students completing our BSN program will create a personal and professional plan for long-term resilience, self-care, lifelong learning, and ethical leadership and decision making in the provision and oversight of nursing practice in a variety of settings.

Advanced Level Learning Outcome

Student completing a graduate nursing program will participate in activities and self-reflection that foster personal health, resilience, and well-being; students will contribute to life-long learning; and students will support the acquisition of nursing expertise and the assertion of leadership.

Conceptual Threads throughout the Curriculum 

The conceptual threads are concepts adapted from the AACN Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education (2026).

Clinical Judgment

As one of the key attributes of professional nursing, clinical judgment, refers to the process by which nurses make decisions based on knowledge (evidence, theories, ways/ petterns of knowing) other disciplinary knowledge, critical thinking, and clinical reasoning (Manetti, 2019). These skills are used to process and interpret information in the delivery of care. Clinical decision making based on the use of clinical judgment is directly related to patient care outcomes (AACN, 2026).

Communication

Communication, informed by nursing and other theories, is a central component in all areas of nursing practice. Communication is defined as an exchange of information, thoughts, and feelings through a variety of mechanisms. The definition encompasses the various ways people interact with each other, including verbal, written, behavioral, body language, touch, and emotion. Communication also includes intentionality, mutuality, partnerships, trust, and presence. Effective communication between nurses and individuals and between nurses and other health professionals is necessary for the delivery of high quality, individualized nursing care. With increasing frequency, communication is delivered through technological modalities. Communication also is a core component of team-based, interprofessional care and closely interrelated with the concept of Social Determinants of Health. (AACN, 2026).

Compassionate Care

As an essential principle of person-centered care, compassionate care refers to the way nurses relate to others as human beings and involves “noticing another person’s vulnerability, experiencing an emotional reaction to this, and acting in some way with them in a way that is meaningful for people” (Murray & Tuqiri, 2020). Compassionate care is interrelated with other concepts such as caring, empathy, and respect and is also closely associated with patient satisfaction. (AACN, 2026)

Access, Connection, and Engagement

Collectively, access, connection, and engagement refer to a broad range of individual (e.g., preparation, life experience, resources), population (e.g., workforce needs, community characteristics), and social considerations (e.g., educational pathways, support systems, learning environments) and are adapted in the Essentials as foundational concepts which guide how nursing educations is designed and delivered. Although considered to be closely related, each serves a distinct purpose and understanding them separately can improve how they are applied in nursing education and nursing practice.

Access references the availability of opportunities, resources, and pathways that enable individuals from a wide range of backgrounds to participate fully in nursing education and the profession. These backgrounds may include, but are not limited to, age; sex; race; ethnicity; sexual orientation; gender identity; family structures; geographic location; national origin; immigration status; language; physical or cognitive limitations that substantially addect daily activities; religious beliefs; and socioeconomic circumstances.

Connection represents learning, work, and organizational environments in which faculty, students, staff, and administrators can build meaningful relationships, experience support, feel valued, and can contribute fully. Connected environments are intentional and value differing perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds. Within these environments, individuals work collaboratively to enure that the perspectives and experiences of others are invited, acknowledged, and respected.

Engagement in nursing education refers to the use of responsive educational systems and practices that recognize differences in learners' preparation, experiences, and available resources, and provide appropriate support to promote full participation and academic success. Engagement-focused approaches strengthen access to nursing education, support learner development, and prepare graduates to meet professional competencies. Effective academic environments foster respect, clear expectations, and meaningful participation, enabling all learners to progress without unecessary obstacles or limiting assumptions. (AACN, 2026)

Ethics

Core to professional nursing practice, ethics refers to principles that guide a person’s behavior. Ethics is closely tied to moral philosophy involving the study of or examination of morality through a variety of different approaches (Tubbs, 2009). There are commonly accepted principles in bioethics including respect for autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice. (ANA 2015; ACNM, 2015, AANA, 2018; ICN, 2012). The study of ethics, as it relates to nursing practice, has led to the exploration of other relevant concepts, including moral distress, moral hazard, moral community, and moral or critical resilience. (AACN, 2026).

Evidence-Based Practice

The delivery of optimal health care requires the integration of current evidence and clinical expertise with individual and family preferences. Evidence-based practice is a problem-solving approach to the delivery of health care that integrates best evidence from studies and patient care data with clinician expertise and patient preferences and values (Melnyk, Fineout-Overhold, Stillwell, and Williamson, 2010). In addition, there is a need to consider those scientific studies that ask: whose perspectives are solicited, who creates the evidence, how is that evidence created, what questions remain unanswered, and what harm may be created? Answers to these questions are paramount to incorporating meaningful, culturally safe, evidence-based practice (Nursing Mutual Aid, 2020). (AACN, 2026).

Health Policy

Health policy involves goal directed decision-making about health that is the result of an authorized public decision-making process (Keller & Ridenour, 2021). Nurses play critical roles in advocating for policy that impacts patients and the profession, especially when speaking with a united voice on issues that affect nursing practice and health outcomes. Nurses can have a profound influence on health policy by becoming engaged in the policy process on many levels, which includes interpreting, evaluating, and leading policy change. (AACN, 2026).

Social Determinants of Health

Determinants of health, a broader term, include personal, social, economic, and environmental factors that impact health. Social determinants of health, a primary component of determinants of health, “are the conditions in the environment where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality of life outcomes and risks.” The social determinants of health contribute to wide health disparities and inequities in areas such as economic stability, education quality and access, healthcare quality and access, neighborhood and built environment, and social and community context (Healthy People, 2030). Nursing practices such as assessment, health promotion, access to care, and patient teaching support improvements in health outcomes. The social determinants of health are closely interrelated with the concepts of access, connection, and engagement, health policy, and communication. (AACN, 2026).

Certificate and Specialty Option Program Learning Outcomes

Program learning outcomes for certificate programs and DNP specialty options are adapted from the AACN Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education (2026) and/or other relevant accreditation or national certification standards including the Core Competencies for Basic Midwifery Practice (ACNM, 2025) and Criteria for Accreditation of Midwifery Education Programs (ACME, 2025) and Standards for Quality Nurse Practitioner Education (NTF, 2022). The outcomes are established to assess student learning and are designed to be applicable with diverse patient populations and settings. Students who graduate from the following programs are prepared to:

Nursing Education Certificate

Post Graduate Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Certificate (2025)

1. Conduct comprehensive and systematic psychiatric assessments in complex situations. AACN Domains: 1, 2.8, 9.
2. Apply selected therapeutic modalities for individuals, group psychotherapy, and the integration of multicultural skills for health promotion and management of mental health problems and psychiatric disorders. AACN Domains: 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 10.
3. Demonstrate appropriate evidence-based use of psychopharmacology concepts in the psychiatric care and management of individuals and families. AACN Domains: 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10.
4. Demonstrate expertise, specialized knowledge, and expanded responsibility and accountability in the advanced psychiatric care and management of individuals and families. AACN Domains: 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
5. Collaborate at a professional level with other healthcare professionals to advance the profession of the PMHNP, AACN Domains: 6, 9, 10.

DNP Nurse-Midwifery Specialty Option

Vision: The Montana State University Mark and Robyn Jones College of Nursing nurse midwifery specialty transforms the lives of people through leadership in midwifery practice, education, and research.

Mission: The Montana State University Mark and Robyn Jones College of Nursing midwifery specialty enhances the health of individuals and families through educating nurse midwives in the provision of person-centered, evidence-based, inclusive, and equitable midwifery care. The midwifery specialty has a special commitment to serving childbearing families in rural and underserved populations.

Philosophy: We believe:

• Midwifery is a specialty within the discipline of nursing which is both a science and art requiring synthesis of evidence-based knowledge, professional skills, ethical values, person-centered care, and a continuous partnership between patients and their providers. 
• Menarche, pregnancy, birth, and menopause are normal physiologic and developmental processes that merit non-intervention and watchful waiting in the absence of complications.
• Nurse-midwives are prepared to independently provide care during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period; sexual and reproductive health; gynecologic health; family planning services, including preconception care; primary care for females from adolescence throughout the lifespan; as well as care for the healthy newborn during the first 28 days of life. 
• All people have a right to equitable, ethical, accessible, quality health care that promotes healing and health, as well as rights to self-determination, active participation in healthcare decisions, and bodily autonomy.
• Nurse-midwives demonstrate respect for human dignity, individuality and diversity, act without bias or discrimination, and advocate for cultural safety, health equity, social justice, and ethical policies in health care.
• Nurse-midwives recognize the importance of interdisciplinary, collaborative care, and work effectively with all members of the healthcare team to optimize patient care.

Program Learning Outcomes: Students completing the program will

1. Integrate foundational knowledge from the basic and applied sciences into clinical, evidenced-based midwifery practice. (AACN Domain: 1, 4, 5, 8).

2. Demonstrate midwifery knowledge, skills, and abilities when providing safe, ethical care during the pre-conception, antepartum, intrapartum, post-partum, and neonatal periods and when providing primary and gynecologic care. (AACN Domains: 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10).

3. Diagnose and manage complications within the midwifery scope of practice when caring for women, individuals in the childbearing cycle, neonates and those receiving primary and gynecologic care by professionally consulting, collaborating, and communicating with or referring to healthcare team members as appropriate. (AACN Domains: 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10).

4. Assume the role of the nurse midwife when collaborating as a member of the intra- and inter-professional health team to impact the outcome of midwifery care.    (AACN Domains: 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10).

5. Use information literacy skills to prevent and reduce errors to improve midwifery care outcomes. (AACN Domains: 2, 3, 5, 8).

6. Provide leadership in the complex health care delivery system to eliminate health disparities advocating for equitable, inclusive, and accessible midwifery care for families, households, and populations. (AACN Domains: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10).

7. Apply principles of ethics, human rights, diversity, equity, and inclusion when providing compassionate, holistic, person-centered care to individuals in the childbearing cycle, women, families, and neonates. (AACN Domains: 2, 9, 10).

8. Integrate knowledge of social determinants of health when providing care and advocating for socially just and economically viable health policies for childbearing people and families. (AACN Domains: 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10).

9. Complete and successfully defend a scholarly project designed to improve health or transform health care appropriate to the role and scope of the doctorally prepared nurse-midwife through critical analysis, interpretation, and application of research findings that contribute to evidence-based practice. (AACN Domains: 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10).

References

American Association of Colleges of Nursing, (2026). The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education.

American College of Nurse-Midwives. (2025). ACNM Core Competencies. Retrieved from https://midwife.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/2025_core_competencies_basic_midwifery_practice.pdf

American College of Nurse-Midwives. (2023). Philosophy of Midwifery.  Retrieved from American-College-of-Nurse-Midwives-Philosophy-of-Midwifery.pdf

American College of Nurse-Midwives. (2024) Definition of Midwifery and Scope of Practice of Certified Nurse Midwives and Certifed Midwives. Retrieved from https://midwife.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Definition-of-Midwifery-and-Scope-of-Practice-of-Certified-Nurse-Midwives-and-Certified-Midwives.pdf

Bloomberg. (2019). When addressing the Abilities community, words matter and people come first. https://www.bloomberg.com/company/stories/when-addressing-the-abilities-community-words-matter-and-people-come-first. 

Cooper, C. L., (2016) The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management. Blackwell Publishing, Blackwell Reference Online. Accessed at http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/book.html?id=g9780631233176_9780631233176.

Kranich, N. (2001). Equality and equity of access: What’s the difference? Libraries and Democracy, Chicago, IL: American Library Association, 2001: 15-27. For the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/equalityequity 

Mohtashami, Salsali, Razargadi, Manoochehri & Majd, (2013) Competency-based curriculum education in mental health nursing. Open Journal of Nursing, 3, 545-551. Doi:10.4236/ojin.2013.38074.

Montana State Board of Nursing. (2013).  Certified Nurse Midwifery Practice.  Retrieved from https://rules.mt.gov/browse/collections/aec52c46-128e-4279-9068-8af5d5432d74/policies/29a388bb-a37b-4bab-9fa7-1c689325e945

Internal control considerations, if applicable: N/A