Master of Nursing Overview

The Master of Nursing (MN) program prepares RNs for practice in a range of settings as leaders, managers, care providers, and educators.  The core coursework includes research, health systems, health policy, leadership, and social issues related to health.

Why seek a Master of Nursing degree?

• Enhance your clinical expertise
• Improve your career mobility
• Cultivate sophistication in your own practice
• Gain skills to proactively improve the healthcare system and the health of the community

Advantages of obtaining your MN at UW Tacoma

• Small class size
• Direct contact, mentoring and advising with faculty in and out of class
• Hybrid program with 1 in person meeting date and 5 online meeting dates per quarter
• Practical, real-world practicum placements that help open new doors in your career

Examples of Master of Nursing employment post-graduation:

• Nurse Educator
• Nurse Manager
• Associate Deans, Deans, and Faculty at community colleges
• Director of Health Services
• Director of Nursing Practice
• Deputy Director
• Clinical Director of Nursing
• Chief Nursing Officer

Admission to the Master of Nursing program is competitive and based on acceptance by the UW Graduate School and the School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership at the University of Washington Tacoma. The following are required:

✓ A baccalaureate degree from an ACEN or CCNE accredited nursing program with a minimum grade-point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale for the last 90 graded quarter credits (or 60 semester credits).

✓ Completion of a three-credit basic course in descriptive and inferential statistics with a grade of at least 2.0 on a 4.0 scale. Find an approved statistics course.

✓ Current unrestricted Washington state RN license.

✓ Read and agree to adhere to the Essential Behaviors for Admission, Continuation and Graduation and Social Networking Policy.

Applying for admission to the Master of Nursing program requires an application and supplemental materials to be submitted to the University of Washington Graduate School 

Apply to the UW Graduate School

✓ Complete the UW Graduate School application.

Official transcripts will be mailed upon request to:

University of Washington Graduate School
G-1 Communications, Box 353770
Seattle, WA 98195-3770      

Submit Application Materials

 ✓ Statement of goals:

Write a statement as to why you are pursuing a graduate nursing degree, and how your graduate experience facilitates the achievement of your professional goals.

Discuss your unique attributes and background and how these contribute to your goals and/or discuss how your personal and/ or professional experiences and aspirations align with the SNHCL Graduate Programs mission, vision, and values.

A suggestion for help in writing your statement is to review these materials to explain why this program will meet your future goals 

• UW Tacoma Master of Nursing Philosophy of Graduate Education 
• UW Tacoma MN Program Goals

You will be evaluated in part on your ability to communicate effectively in writing. The maximum length of the essay should not exceed three pages, typewritten and double spaced, using a 12-point font.

 ✓ A current résumé:

Describe all RN work experience, with dates and positions and provide a brief description of responsibilities, including evidence of leadership in practice. Identify professional involvement, awards, volunteer work, publications, and/or committee membership.

MN applicants who have not received their BSN 

While applicants to the MN program are expected to have a bachelor’s degree in nursing, the School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership recognizes that RNs may have gained experience and knowledge in “leadership, quality, and safety” and/or “community/population health nursing” through academic, professional, and/ or personal experiences outside of a bachelor’s program in nursing.

Students with a bachelor’s degree in a field other than nursing can fulfill the leadership and community health nursing requirements in one of two ways:

1. Complete the equivalent leadership and community nursing coursework prior to the second year of the MN program. Admitted students may enroll in approved coursework of TNURS 460: Leading Health Care System Quality & Safety and TNURS 414: Health, Communities, and Populations.
2. Experienced RNs with a baccalaureate degree in a major other than nursing may demonstrate competency equivalent to the bachelor’s degree in nursing by writing a petition for each of the two competency areas to the Graduate Program Committee. Each petition must demonstrate knowledge and experience acquired through academic, professional, and/ or personal experiences in the areas of “leadership, quality, and safety” and/or “community/population health nursing”.

The Graduate Program Committee will review petitions and recommend admission (upon receipt of a graduate studies application) or recommend taking specific UW Tacoma BSN coursework (earning a minimum of a 3.0 grade) for enrollment/application to the program. Prospective students should submit their petitions with their application materials.

For each petition, please address each objective (bullet point) in 250 words or less.

Community/ Population Health Nursing Petition

• Describe examples of social, cultural, political, economic and environmental factors that influence the health of communities, and populations. 
• Discuss theories and strategies used for community assessment, planning, intervention, and evaluation.
• Describe the importance of establishing collaborative relationships with diverse partners for health promotion. 
• Describe 2-3 examples of how you have applied community and public health nursing principles.  
• Provide 2-3 examples of when you have demonstrated working effectively within a team of peers.

Leadership, quality, and safety petition

• Briefly describe the organization, structural factors, benefits, and limitations of the U.S. health care delivery system.
• Describe strategies you have used or could use to improve the quality and safety of health interventions and outcomes to diverse populations at the policy, system, and environment levels.
• Discuss an example of the application of data systems and technologies to facilitate effective, safe, and quality health interventions.
• Compare and contrast frameworks for enhancing quality and safety in the delivery of health interventions across care systems.
• Explain nursing’s leadership role in coordinating, providing, and evaluating safe, quality, and equitable care to diverse populations.

Applicants are advised to include not only a description of their professional experience, expertise and education but to also provide examples such as:

• Course descriptions of academic, continuing education, or in-service education courses
• Clinical examples of research utilization or providing health education.
• Descriptions of community projects
• An annotated (detailed, descriptive) resume that highlights professional and community health experiences, whether at work or in the community (both volunteer and paid)
• In-service course descriptions and/or evaluation
• Professional certification, when the exam or requirements for such certification includes knowledge of relevant content or skills
• Committee membership
• Volunteer experience
• Membership and activities in professional organizations