Elective Courses

Prerequisites: None

Course Description: Beginning in 1981 when the first case of HIV was diagnosed, the HIV and AIDs epidemic has dramatically altered the social, cultural, economic, political and demographic landscape worldwide. Understanding the drivers and the implications of this epidemic of individuals, families, communities and countries requires insight into the myriad of biological, socio-cultural and political factors that shape individual knowledge and behavior, access to preventive and treatment modalities, as well as the political and international responses to the epidemic.

The purpose of this course is to provide an overview of the social and behavioral factors that influence the transmission and prevention of HIV and AIDs worldwide. Topics to be covered include the natural history and epidemiology of the AIDS virus, the mechanisms of transmission, high risk and vulnerable populations, social determinants of risk and vulnerability, theoretical foundations for HIV prevention programs, primary and secondary HIV prevention strategies, treatment of HIV and AIDS, and implications of HIV and AIDS for individuals, families, communities and countries.

Prerequisites: None

Course Description: This course is designed to provide graduate and undergraduate nursing students with an in-depth understanding of palliative care focusing on delivery of patient/family centered care in a variety of healthcare practice environments. Using the ELNEC (End of Life Nursing Education Consortium) undergraduate nursing student curriculum or APRN curriculum, students will gain knowledge about the comprehensive delivery of quality palliative care during curative concurrent therapies through transitions to comfort-focused care. Ethical aspects, values and self-awareness will be explored as it influences delivery of care. Students will gain enhanced appreciation for a multidisciplinary team approach to care of the seriously ill patient. Students will develop interpersonal communication skills that are valuable when caring for patients with serious illness and working with families and interdisciplinary providers. This course will teach components of holistic care used along the palliative care continuum addressing spiritual, social, physical and psychological needs. The student will obtain a palliative care nursing education certificate of completion that can be placed in their portfolio.

Prerequisites: Upper-Level Undergraduate Standing

Course Description: Wellness and Restoration in Health Professionals --- The aim of this course is to equip health professionals with the necessary knowledge, skills, and strategies to effectively manage and mitigate stress in their personal and professional lives, while providing high-quality care to patients. Theoretical frameworks for understanding the impact of stress paired with applicable tools for stress mitigation will be provided. Participants will engage in interactive discussions, case studies, role-playing exercises, and self- reflection activities to enhance their understanding of skills to support participants' wellbeing and practical application in healthcare settings. By acquiring these skills, participants will be better equipped to manage stress and promote a healthier and more resilient work environment for themselves and their colleagues.

Prerequisites: None

Course Description: This elective course is designed to provide undergraduate students with the background to understand gender-based violence and the skills necessary to provide advocacy services to survivors. Our story on gender-based violence will include attention to intimate partner violence, stalking, sexual harassment, child abuse, sexual assault, and human trafficking. This course utilizes a 360-degree framework which recognizes that everything is interconnected and takes into consideration the multiple lenses through which each individual understands gender-based violence from a broad, holistic context. We will also examine gender-based violence utilizing other perspectives including feminist, ecological, and social justice. This course will introduce students to the roots of gender-based violence, the social and cultural context in which it occurs, the mental and physical health impact, justice and restitution frameworks, and will explore approaches to changing those structures in order to reduce or end it. Students will develop the skills to think critically about the local and global impact of gender-based violence, how it intersects with other forms of oppression and to develop an understanding of these issues that will be useful intellectually, personally, and professionally.

Prerequisites: None

Course Description: This course prepares students to lead in data driven advocacy for impact on population health and professional practice within the context of a diverse and changing social and political environment.

Students will develop the skills necessary to seek out and analyze available data and evidence in order to evaluate existing policy, identify policy problems, and develop and justify innovative policy solutions.

Students will consider options and devise new strategies for collaborating and communicating with various stakeholders to influence change. Evaluating the synergies between political power and the policy process is a theme throughout the course.

Prerequisites: None

Course Description: This inter-professional course is designed for students in: dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work.  The course allows health professional students to gain an understanding of how each discipline contributes to the healthcare team and the importance of effective communication and team collaboration to clinical decision making.

Prerequisites:  None

Course Description: Unveiling Our Roots: LGBTQIA+ Health Histories and Contemporary Policy Landscapes for Informed Care and Advocacy --- Through critical analysis and case studies, students will gain insight into the impact of policy and politics on LGBTQIA+ health and develop advocacy skills for promoting inclusive healthcare policies. Students will explore the historical context of the AIDS crisis, analyzing activism strategies, societal responses, and policy implications. They will also examine the intersectionality of factors affecting LGBTQIA+ individuals, including health disparities, and the unique challenges faced within healthcare systems. Additionally, students will learn advocacy tools aimed at national, state, local, and health system level policy changes to support improved access and health equity. Overall, this course empowers students to become informed advocates and providers who actively contribute to advancing LGBTQIA+ health equity.

Prerequisites:  None

Course Description: Spectrum of Well-being: Psychosocial Threads in LGBTQIA+ Health --- This course offers a deep exploration of the intricate relationship between LGBTQIA+ identities, mental health, and substance use, providing students with a holistic understanding of the complex factors influencing well-being within the community. Through critical analysis, participants will develop the capacity to advocate for inclusive mental health policies and foster environments that prioritize empathy and support. Students will investigate the diverse needs of LGBTQIA+ individuals across their lifespan, including the unique experiences impacting their physical, mental, and social health from childhood through to old age. Equipped with culturally sensitive skills and knowledge, students will emerge prepared to understand how to design safe, affirming spaces, and offer tailored care and support that recognize intersectional identities and past histories that facilitate LGBTQIA+ psychosocial well-being.

Prerequisites:  NURS 502, NURS 503, PHARM 620

Course Description: This course provides students with the tools and skills necessary to provide compassionate and effective specialized healthcare to LGBTQIA+ individuals. Through a blend of theoretical study and practical application, students will learn to conduct culturally sensitive assessments and create personalized care plans that cater to the holistic health needs of this community. Students will gain exposure to clinicians who have expertise in delivering gender-affirming primary care, sexual and reproductive health services, and primary healthcare needs of LGBTQIA+ individuals. Course content with expand on foundational theoretical knowledge gained from pathophysiology, pharmacology, and health assessment to apply in an LGBTQIA+ practice environment. Additionally, the course will delve into best practices for tailoring health information and providing relevant, informed, and competent health education to empower the LGBTQIA+ population in making informed decisions about their health and well-being.

Prerequisites: None

Course Description: This elective course is designed to coincide with the School of Nursing annual Global Summer Institute that takes place in May of each year. It will provide graduate students and upper level undergraduate students with the knowledge and skills to work in interdisciplinary groups to solve real-world global health issues with domestic and international partners. Students will have the opportunity to network with practitioners, researchers, and professionals across the globe during the Summer Institute. Students will also develop the skills to think critically about local and global health issues including potential solutions to address issues at the individual, interpersonal, community, or societal level that will contribute to an understanding of these issues that will be useful intellectually, personally, and professionally.

Prerequisites: HS 540

Course Description: This course will provide foundational knowledge about developing and sustaining a school or organizational culture that is trauma-informed. The course will incorporate principles of interprofessional education, which focuses on helping students in the professions work collaboratively in generalist and specialty practice roles. A primary goal of the course is to prepare students to use interprofessional and team-based strategies to achieve organizational change. A key focus will be on teachers, social workers, and nurses going beyond their practice role to collaborate on organizational work. Examples including educating colleagues, planning for a long-term project, evaluating programs, and obtaining resources to sustain collaborative models and programs to address trauma in schools

Prerequisites: HS 530 and Nursing MSN, DNP, or PhD standing

Course Description: This elective course is designed to coincide with the School of Nursing annual Global Summer Institute that takes place in May of each year. It will provide graduate students with the knowledge and skills to present their global health projects and ideas to interdisciplinary groups of domestic and international partners. This course will introduce students to a broader understanding of evidence-based practice, policy, and leadership related to global health. Students will have the opportunity to network with practitioners, researchers, and professionals across the globe during the Summer Institute. Students will also develop critical skills necessary for developing, implementing, and evaluating complex global health projects.

Prerequisites: None

Course Description: This is a quantitative graduate course that provides a general of the principles, concepts, techniques, tools and services for managing, harmonizing, aggregating, preprocessing, modeling, analyzing and interpreting large, multi-source, incomplete, incongruent, and heterogeneous data (Big Data). Students will be exposed to common challenges related to handling Big Data, the enormous opportunities and power associated with our ability to interrogate such complex datasets, extract useful information, derived new knowledge, and provide actionable forecasting. Biomedical, healthcare, and social datasets will provide context for addressing specific driving challenges. Students will learn about modern data analytic techniques and develop skills for importing and exporting, cleaning and fusing, modeling and visualizing, analyzing and synthesizing complex datasets. The collaborative design, implementation, sharing and community validation of high-throughput analytic workflows will be emphasized throughout the course.

This course aims to build computational abilities, inferential thinking, and practical skills for tackling core data scientific challenges. It explores foundational concepts in data management, processing, statistical computing, and dynamic visualization using modern programming tools and agile web-services. Open-science concepts, ideas, and protocols are illustrated through examples of real observational, simulated and research-derived datasets. Some prior quantitative experience in programming, calculus, statistics, mathematical models, or linear algebra will be necessary.

Prerequisites: Graduate-level standing in one of the health sciences (Dental Hygiene, Dentistry, Kinesiology Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health, Social Work)

Course Description: This interprofessional course is for graduate student learners in the health professions. The course allows health professional students to gain an understanding of how each discipline contributes to the healthcare team, the importance of effective communication, and the role of team collaboration in clinical decision making. This is an online IPE course where students will learn with, about, and from students in other health disciplines. Students will engage in case-based team-based learning online.

Prerequisites: None

Course Description: Selected Topics in Health Sciences

Prerequisites: Doctoral standing

Course Description: This course provides an overview of selected qualitative research methods and an opportunity to comparatively analyze them. The discussion and analysis of each method includes theoretical paradigm and perspective, research method and technique, language use, and methodological issues. Exposure to the selected interpretive paradigms, methods, and techniques heightens students' awareness of the repertoire of strategies available for using knowledge. Simultaneously, the exposure to context-specific interpretive practices facilitates students' understanding of the influence of culture on the creation of knowledge.

Prerequisites: None

Course description: This course introduces global health concepts and the network of organizations working to advance health care internationally.  Emphasis is on global burden of disease, determinants of health and importance of interdisciplinary approach to health care delivery.  Provide students with a broad introduction to programs, systems and policies affecting global health.  Will explore facets of the global health care delivery system, health care economics and the political process and its impact on the health of individuals and populations.

Prerequisites: NURS 420

Course Description: Interdisciplinary clinically focused elective course.  Explores issues that directly or indirectly affect health in low and middle resource countries.  Students will learn about health care delivery systems with a focus on global/public health concepts and health promotion and risk reduction.  Purpose is to broaden the student's worldview and global perspectives of health care issues.  Emphasis is on health equity among nations and for all people.

Prerequisites: UMSN Office of Global Affairs approved field experience

Course Description: This course allows students to prepare for and participate in engaged learning opportunities in global health. Students will participate in seminar meetings focused on learning about the culture, health systems and history of the countries, populations or cultures they will be immersed in, self-paced learning on community engagement and then will have the opportunity to have a planned and approved immersion experience to learn about health systems and community health needs. Learning experiences can occur virtually or in-person, may include visits to local hospitals, health centers, community groups and nongovernmental organizations as well as participating with local community health workers and/or nursing students in health promotion activities.

Prerequisites: None

Course Description: This course introduces global health concepts and the network of organizations working to advance health care internationally. Emphasis is on global burden of disease, determinants of health and importance of interdisciplinary approach to health care delivery. Provides students with a broad introduction to programs, systems and policies affecting global health. We will consider how history, culture, politics and social

institutions influence health and health systems. The purpose of the course is to broaden the student's worldview and global perspective on health care issues. Emphasis for this course is on health equity among nations and for all people.

Prerequisites: Junior- or senior-level undergraduate standing or graduate standing

Course Description: This course introduces students to the knowledge, skills, and practical tools needed to successfully lead within global public health systems. Students will be introduced to global health issues of two kinds: (1) fundamental cross-cutting issues such as the relationship between global health and economic development and (2) selected thematic areas such as child survival, HIV/AIDS and global tobacco control. The course will both contextualize current efforts in global health historically and describe likely future trends. Readings will be drawn from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including history, political science, economics, sociology and anthropology. This course is designed to equip students with critical perspectives and resources they will need for leadership roles in nursing and public health in our increasingly small and interdependent world.

Prerequisites: Junior- or senior-level undergraduate standing or graduate standing and enrollment in UMSN’s Global Health Concentration.

Course Description: This course introduces students to the knowledge, skills, and practical tools needed to successfully lead within global public health systems. Students will be introduced to fundamental cross-cutting factors that influence health systems such as governance and selected thematic areas such as infectious diseases and maternal-child health. The course will both contextualize current efforts in global health historically and describe likely future trends. The seminar component provides students the opportunity to delve more deeply into global health systems, leadership in global health, partnerships and collaborations, and solutions for global health challenges. The course will equip students with critical perspectives and resources they will need for leadership roles in nursing and public health in our increasingly small and interdependent world.

Prerequisites: None

Course Description: This competency-based course will provide an introduction to the role and function of the nurse involved in staff development, patient education, or a faculty role. Following an introduction to philosophies and theories of teaching and learning, students will focus on understanding the characteristics of learners, analysis of needs assessments, development of instructional objectives, and course design. Emphasis will be placed on teaching methods, including distance learning and online instruction; experiential learning; and evaluation measures. An individual practical application assignment in designing and presenting a teaching plan will facilitate development of knowledge and skill.