B.S. in Nursing

Take charge of your nursing career with an online RN to BSN

Franklin University’s B.S. in Nursing (RN to BSN) degree-completion program is designed specifically for registered nurses with an associate’s degree (ADN) or nursing diploma. Earn your online RN to BSN fast, with our accelerated program comprised of 9, six-week, online courses that fit your life and schedule. You can also choose to study in the United States as part of our residential program that includes an intensive ESL component. 

Program Overview

Franklin’s rigorous coursework is an efficient way to build on your existing education and experience, helping you acquire the expertise needed to advance your career. You’ll gain the skills healthcare providers are actively looking for in these key areas: nursing leadership and management, clinical competence, personalized medicine, evidence-based practice, community and population health, health informatics, and healthcare law and ethics.

The baccalaureate degree program in nursing at Franklin University is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (http://www.ccneaccreditation.org).

Our program curriculum reflects The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice, as established by The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). Our coursework meets other national industry standards and guidelines as well, and is informed by the American Nurses Association (ANA) Code of Ethics, Healthy People 2020, and Quality and Safety in Education of Nurses (QSEN), so you can be confident your degree will prepare you with the up-to-date knowledge you need to advance your nursing career.

Program Outcomes

  1. Integrate theories and concepts from arts, humanities, and sciences to develop a foundation for holistic nursing practice

  2. Apply leadership concepts, skills, and decision-making in the provision of quality nursing care, multidisciplinary collaboration, and the oversight and accountability for care delivery

  3. Integrate current evidence including nursing and healthcare research to ground nursing practice and promote high quality patient care outcomes

  4. Apply knowledge and skills in information management and patient care technology to improve patient care outcomes and create a safe care environment

  5. Demonstrate knowledge of the influences of healthcare policy, finance, and regulatory environments including local, state, national, and global healthcare trends on nursing practice and the healthcare system

  6. Employ effective communication in interactions with healthcare professionals, individuals, and groups to advocate for high quality and safe patient care

  7. Apply the principles of health promotion and disease prevention across the health-illness continuum to improve the health of individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations

  8. Incorporate professional standards, and the values of caring, ethics, integrity, altruism and social justice in the practice of nursing

  9. Assume roles in nursing practice and leadership to provide high quality and safe care to culturally diverse individuals, families, groups, communities and populations across the lifespan and across the continuum of healthcare environments

Curriculum & Course Descriptions

Fundamental General Education
English Composition
ENG 120 - College Writing (4)

In this course, students acquire the writing competencies necessary for completing analytical and argumentative papers supported by secondary research. A variety of assignments, beginning with personal reflections, build upon one another, as students develop ideas that respond to, critique, and synthesize the positions of others. Students systematize and organize knowledge in ways that will help them in all their courses. The course also emphasizes the elements of critical reading, effective writing style, appropriate grammar and mechanics, clarity of language, and logical and cohesive development. It culminates in submission of an extended, documented research paper.

Mathematics
MATH 160 - College Algebra (4)

This course is designed to prepare students for Applied Calculus and Discrete Mathematics and to provide the mathematical background needed for the analytic reasoning used in other courses. Topics include functions and their graphs, including exponential and logarithmic functions; complex numbers; systems of equations and inequalities; matrices; basic principles of counting and probability; and other selected topics. Note, this course has proctored exam(s).

OR MATH 215 - Statistical Concepts (4)

This course introduces you to statistics with applications to various areas. The course covers both descriptive and inferential statistics. Topics included are: sampling techniques, data types, experiments; measures of central tendency, measures of dispersion, graphical displays of data, basic probability concepts, binomial and normal probability distributions, sampling distributions and Central Limit Theorem; confidence intervals, hypothesis tests of a mean, or a proportion for one or two populations, and linear regression.

AND

Choose MATH 150 Fundamental Algebra as the prerequisite for MATH 160. Choose either MATH 140 Introduction to Quantitative Reasoning or MATH 150 Fundamental Algebra as the prerequisite for MATH 215. Course can count as a University elective.

Social and Behavioral Sciences

6 credits from the following types of courses:
Choose from the Anthropology, Geography, History, Political Science, Psychology, or Sociology disciplines.

Science

6 credits from the following types of courses:
Two courses from the Science discipline. One course must have a lab component.

Arts & Humanities

6 credits from the following types of courses:
Choose from the Art, English Literature, Fine Arts, Humanities, Music, Philosophy, Religion or Theater disciplines.

Additional General Education
PF 121 - Basic Learning Strategies (2)

This course prepares students to be successful lifelong learners both academically and in their chosen careers. Franklin courses require a high level of self-directed learning and focus on the skills required in the workplace and the classroom that are easily transferrable between the two environments. The course includes strategies for time management, goal setting, reading comprehension, and advancing communication skills, including the use of electronic tools to participate in virtual environments.

OR PF 321 - Learning Strategies (2)

This course prepares students to be successful lifelong learners both academically and in their chosen careers. Franklin courses require a high level of self-directed learning and focus on the skills required in the workplace and the classroom that are easily transferable between the two environments. The course includes strategies for advancing communication skills, including the use of electronic tools to participate in virtual environments. The assignments and activities in the course are created to closely simulate teamwork found in the workplace.

AND

COMM 150 - Interpersonal Communication (4)

By using applied critical and creative thinking, students in this course will develop a set of communication skills that will enhance their personal and professional relationships and endeavors. This course will focus on skill development in key areas such as self, perception, listening, verbal messages, conversations, relationships, conflict management, persuasion, and presentation skills.

OR SPCH 100 - Speech Communication (4)

This basic public-speaking course intends to improve the student's ability to think critically and to communicate orally. Theory and practice are provided in various speaking situations. Each student is required to speak before an audience, but class work also involves reading, gathering and organizing information, writing, and listening.

AND

6 credits from the following types of courses:
Any General Education course at the 100 or 200 level

Technical Credit

24 credits from the following types of courses:
Transfer credit from a diploma or associate degree registered nursing program.

Major Area Required
HIM 350 - Health Informatics (4)

This course will cover the history of health informatics, design and challenges of informatics infrastructure, and current issues. Topics will include HIPAA and other legislation, application of electronic health records, and other clinical and administrative applications of health information systems.

OR HIM 702 - Health Information Governance (4)

This course covers the broad spectrum of strategic issues in healthcare including policies, guidelines, standards, processes, and controls required to manage and implement enterprise-level information. Treating information as a strategic asset to healthcare organizations, processes to manage various risks to the quality of information and ensure its appropriate use are covered.

AND

HCM 442 - Legal Aspects of Healthcare Management (4)

Understanding cultural competency, ethics, policy, and law is necessary for healthcare professionals in a continuously evolving healthcare system. This course will provide students with practical knowledge and methods for applying ethical, legal, and cultural decision-making frameworks to mitigate risks. Topics will include regulatory compliance, patient consent, privacy and confidentiality, and cultural competence.

OR HCM 742 - Healthcare Laws and Ethics (4)

In this course students will develop a strong foundation in health law, enabling them to deal with the common legal, practical, moral, and ethical issues that healthcare organizations face on a daily basis. Topics will include statutory law, rules and regulations, tort law, criminal law, contract law, civil procedures, and trial procedure.

OR HCM 752 - Health Policy (4)

This course will explore the essential conceptual and analytical understanding of health policymaking and politics, including their impact on health administration and leadership. Selected policy issues will be explored through the application of political concepts and behavioral models, including a system model of policymaking. The emphasis will be on understanding the health leader?s approach to the policymaking system, become involved in it, and work through it to attain their objectives and those of their organization.

AND

NURS 310 - Transition to Professional Nursing (4)

This course is designed to facilitate transition into the study of professional nursing. The course introduces the scope and theoretical foundations of the nursing profession, with emphasis on the societal mandate for nursing, legal parameters of practice, critical thinking and communication.

NURS 325 - Health Assessment & Promotion (4)

This course is designed to broaden and enhance the professional nurse's knowledge and skills in health promotion and holistic assessment of individuals across the lifespan. Students will explore concepts of assessment and health promotion, disease, and injury prevention. Emphasis is placed on recognizing deviation from normal and assessing physiological, psychosocial, developmental, spiritual, environmental, genetic, and cultural dimensions while completing a comprehensive health assessment.

NURS 425 - Genetics in Nursing & Healthcare (2)

This course explores genetic concepts and principles related to human variation in health and disease. Current evidence on selected disorders including immunity and cancer will be explored with emphasis on clinical application. Political, social, and ethical issues impacted by recent advances such as genetic engineering, gene therapy, reproductive technology and the Human Genome Project will be analyzed. This clinical application of moral, ethical, and legal issues will be integrated throughout the course.

NURS 435 - Nurs Research & Evidence-Based Practice (4)

This course provides an overview of the research process including methodology, design and interpretation of findings. Students will study basic statistics relevant to interpreting research findings. The emphasis in the course will be on the integration of current evidence, including nursing and health care research, to guide nursing practice and promote high quality and safe patient care outcomes.

NURS 445 - Community Health Nursing (4)

The focus of this course is the professional nurse's role in working with aggregates in the community. This course presents the theory, concepts and practice of community health nursing. The components of health promotion and disease prevention at the individual and population level in order to improve the health of individuals, families, groups, communities and populations are emphasized. The health attitudes, beliefs and practices of culturally diverse populations are explored.

NURS 455 - Leadership & Mgmt for Professional Nurse (4)

This course focuses on theories and principles of leadership and management in healthcare environments. Organizational mission, vision, and strategic planning, along with quality improvement, patient safety, and motivation and change theory as applied to healthcare systems are explored. Effective communication with healthcare professionals, individuals, and groups to promote high quality and safe patient care is emphasized.

NURS 498 - Nursing Capstone (4)

This culminating course is designed to provide the baccalaureate nursing student with an opportunity to demonstrate synthesis of knowledge and skills acquired throughout the RN-BSN program. Students will integrate theories and concepts from arts, humanities, science, and professional nursing to develop a capstone project.

University Electives

24 credits from the following types of courses:
•Any undergraduate courses offered by the University except developmental education courses.

Additional Requirements

All students are required to pass College Writing (ENG 120), and either Basic Learning Strategies (PF 121) or Learning Strategies (PF 321) prior to enrolling in any course at the 200 level or above. Students who enroll at Franklin with 30 or fewer hours of transfer credit are required to pass PF 121 Basic Learning Strategies in place of PF 321 Learning Strategies. Interpersonal Communication (COMM 150) or Speech Communication (SPCH 100) must be taken prior to enrolling in any course at the 300 level or above. Students must also meet the University algebra competency requirement.