Welcome 

Your associate degree brought you into a nursing career. A Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree can help take your career to the next level. WesternU offers a direct pathway for nurses with an associate's degree to earn an MSN in two to three years without going back to school for a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN).

WesternU's graduate nursing programs are designed for nurses who wish to continue working in their profession, keep family commitments, and live in their home community while pursuing a graduate education. You complete your academic curriculum primarily through the web and make two weekend visits (to our Pomona, CA campus) per semester for intensive seminars.

As an applicant, you will choose between four web-based distance tracks for the Associate Degree in Nursing to Master of Science in Nursing program:

• Health Systems Leadership-Clinical Nurse Leader
  This program prepares you to be a clinical nurse leader, a new nursing role that involves overseeing the care coordination of a group of patients and provides direct patient care in complex situations.
• Health Systems Leadership-Administrative Nurse Leader
  This program prepares you to work at the administrative level as a nurse manager or nurse executive in a variety of health-care settings. Completion of this program meets the educational qualifications for certification as a nurse administrator.
• Ambulatory Care Nursing
  Ambulatory care nursing is a unique realm of nursing practice that takes place in the outpatient, ambulatory-care setting. It is characterized by rapid, focused assessments of patients, long-term nurse/patient/family relationships, and teaching and translating prescriptions for care into doable activities for patients and their caregivers in the outpatient setting.
• Family Nurse Practitioner
  Nurse practitioners are primary-care providers that offer high-quality and cost-effective care to their patients. Their skills include performing physical examinations, implementing minor medical procedures (such as casting), treating illnesses, and prescribing medications. Nurse practitioners are different from other primary-care providers because they focus on wellness promotion and illness prevention from holistic, family, and community perspectives.

Are you ready for distance learning? Take the College of Graduate Nursing's Distance Education Self-Assessment.

 Why Choose WesternU? We offer:

• A rigorous program of study that produces graduates who are in demand and highly respected by their employers
• A flexible program that allows you to balance your work and family commitments with your education
• A program with the highest level of accreditation
• Top faculty experienced at facilitating distance learning
• Long humanistic tradition of treating patients as people first; treating students as colleagues; and fostering camaraderie among students
• Outstanding student support services for your distance education
• A chance to join the WesternU nursing alumni who share a lifelong connection with the University 

Earning your MSN at WesternU will provide you with additional clinical experience, an increased knowledge base, increased respect from your community, supervisors, and peers, and enhanced leadership skills. With more hospitals seeking magnet status, nurses with an associate's degree will need BSN degrees at minimum, so why not receive your MSN in just two years and increase your career possibilities and earning potential?

Learn More

There are many ways for you to visit campus to learn more about our programs and we encourage you to attend a WesternU Preview Day. We also invite you to sign up for our electronic mailing list and "like" us on Facebook. 

View the College of Graduate Nursing website to learn more about the profession.