Master in Nursing | ZHAW Health Sciences (2024)

Become an Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) with a Master of Science in Nursing

• The close relationship between applied research and teaching will empower you to improve the health and quality of life of people affected by ill health and their families.
• We work with our students in co-creative ways. Together, we develop ideas, implement projects, and share with you a passion for nursing expertise and nursing research on an equal footing.
• By studying together with students from other disciplines of the School of Health Sciences, you will be able to gain a comprehensive understanding of your profession.
• Guest lecturers from Switzerland and abroad will enable you to expand your national and international network.
• A Master in Nursing will enable you to anticipate and develop innovative solutions in clinical practice, research, teaching, or health care management.

With a Master of Science in Nursing, you will acquire the knowledge required for Advanced Practice as well as scientific competencies necessary for specific clinical practice, modern leadership, and practically oriented research.

The Master’s programme and the Research Centre for Nursing Science work closely together, both in terms of their teams and activities. The research priorities of the four faculty chairs at the Institute of Nursing are embedded in the academic programmes, which results in four content-based focus areas:

• Nursing in acute care
• In-home care
• Family-centred care
• Community-based integrated care

The interprofessional modules will allow you to acquire competencies to supplement your profession-specific knowledge. In some modules, you will be studying with students from other disciplines of the School of Health Sciences. This interaction will enable you to hone your understanding of your profession and become skilled in communicating and collaborating with other professional groups

In the compulsory modules, you will develop a foundation of knowledge of the role of the Advanced Practice Nurse and expand your understanding and capacity to act in the core areas of ethics and communication.

• Research methods: Scientific theory and methodology, quantitative methods, qualitative methods, statistics using R
• Advanced Practice, practical fields and competencies of APNs: Advanced Practice roles and competencies, communication and coordination, ethics, clinical assessment, and critical reasoning

The elective modules will enable you to focus on your own areas of interest. You can choose from the following fields of study:

• Advanced knowledge of research methods
• Clinical Nurse Specialist
• Nurse Practitioner

In your internships, you will be guided to expand your clinical or scientific professional and methodological skills.

The Master’s thesis is an independent piece of scientific work on a topic of your choice. This topic will either be related to your area of interest or professional environment or it will be one of the topics of the Research Centre for Nursing Science. To help you complete your Master’s thesis, the university offers comprehensive support in the form of colloquiums and journal clubs, methodological and software advice, as well as individual coaching.

A double-degree agreement between ZHAW and Universität Witten/Herdecke opens up new career paths for nurses and midwives.

One study programme, two degrees: Nurses and midwives who are interested in earning a Master’s degree and could imagine studying in Germany or in Switzerland can enrol in a new double-degree programme from the winter semester 2022/23 offered by ZHAW in Switzerland and Universität Witten/Herdecke (UW/H) in Germany.

An MSc in Nursing opens up a wide scope of activities in clinical practice, research, teaching, or management. In particular, your professional activity may lie in one of the following areas:

in the specialised care of the chronically ill in acute inpatient, psychiatric, or outpatient health care facilities and long-term institutions;

in the basic care and support of the sick and their relatives in health care facilities and in the home;in organizations for the promotion of illness prevention and better health, such as in schools, in parental counselling, in companies, or in the field of addiction counselling; and in providing expert advice to nursing staff as well as other professional groups in inpatient and outpatient care.

A Master of Science ZHAW in Nursing entitles you to earn a doctorate, which opens up new perspectives in research and teaching. The doctoral programme "Care and Rehabilitation Sciences", which was launched in 2018, offers all health professionals with a degree from a university of applied sciences the opportunity to do a doctorate in Switzerland. It is a well-structured postgraduate course of study in which participants acquire knowledge of the principles and methods of research at a university level and are given the opportunity to conduct a research project.

Continuing education programs enable participants to deepen individual areas of expertise. The continuing education courses at ZHAW have a modular structure and can be gradually expanded to a Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS), a Diploma of Advanced Studies (DAS), or a Master of Advanced Studies (MAS).

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