Access / Comprehensive Training
Our graduate nursing program empowers its students with the kind of access, information, and contemporary clinical experience that can only be obtained through affiliation with a world-class academic health center. As the only degree granting institution within the Partners Healthcare System, the second largest healthcare system in the nation, we offer our students opportunity for both hospital and community experience within the Partners network as well as 250 actively affiliated, regional, and national clinical sites. Our curriculum utilizes adult-learning principles that integrate scientific nursing knowledge, scholarship, and clinical and leadership skills into a caring, holistic framework.
Experienced Institution / Solid Preparation
Our twenty plus years of experience in educating nurses at the graduate level has enabled us to create innovative curriculums that foster scientific and theoretical knowledge, cultivate critical thinking skills, and promote professional development. We pride ourselves on the 95-100% pass rates our students experience as first-time takers on both the registered nurse licensure (NCLEX-RN) and advanced practice nursing certification (ANCC and NCC) exams. Our students consistently score well above both state and national averages.
Renowned Faculty / Contemporary Education
More than 80% of the faculty in our graduate nursing program hold doctoral degrees. They are recognized nationally and internationally for their leadership as well as clinical and scholarly excellence and are actively engaged in nursing and its associated professional activities. Most actively publish in peer-reviewed journals and textbooks and use their own real-world experience as teaching examples. As a result, our students are not only instructed in the field’s most current and relevant practices, they are privy to the innovative thinking and professional and ethical standards that will define tomorrow’s practices as well.
Specialization Options / Board Certification
The Entry-Level master’s curriculum includes options for the sought-after advanced practice nursing roles of nurse practitioner (NP) and clinical nurse specialist (CNS). Nurse practitioner (NP) specialty options include Acute Care, Family, General Adult, Pediatrics, and Psychiatric-Mental Health, as well as dual-specialty options in Adult/Gerontology, and Adult/Women’s Health. Clinical nurse specialist (CNS) options include the above clinical areas and either Adult Psychiatric-Mental Health, or Child/Adolescent Psychiatric-Mental Health. All options prepare students for board certification in their chosen advanced practice specialty.
Post-Baccalaureate Education / Individualized Attention
Since MGH Institute is solely dedicated to Post-Baccalaureate education, our students don’t compete with undergraduates for faculty attention as they might at other institutions. This, in addition to our small class sizes, allows for a uniquely personalized environment in which students are the center of faculty attention and, as a result, develop their professional skills within a nurturing environment.
Diverse perspective / Supportive Environment
Students typically enter the nursing program with a variety of educational and occupational backgrounds, many pursuing second careers. This diversity of age, ethnicities, and perspectives provides a stimulating educational experience, fosters exposure to different ideas, and enriches interactions between classmates and faculty. You’ll enjoy collegial working relationships with your fellow classmates in which you learn and study together in a noncompetitive educational environment.
Interdisciplinary Focus of the Nursing Program
Learning Environment
Students of this intensive graduate program enjoy a uniquely personalized environment in which they are the center of faculty attention. Since MGH Institute is dedicated solely to graduate education, there are no undergraduates to compete with for faculty time or attention, as there might be at other institutions.
Students typically enter the program with a variety of educational and occupational backgrounds. This diversity provides a stimulating educational experience, and enriches interactions between both classmates and faculty. You’ll enjoy collegial working relationships with your fellow classmates in which you learn and study together in a noncompetitive educational environment.
As part of our interdisciplinary approach to education, students have the opportunity to participate in quarterly Schwartz Center Educational Rounds in which students and faculty from the different academic programs engage in dialogue on important issues that advance a compassionate approach to patient care. The rounds are similar in structure to the hospital-based rounds series also sponsored by the Kenneth B. Schwartz Center. Through these sessions, students not only broaden their interdisciplinary perspective, they also develop the teamwork skills critical to contemporary health care.
No classes are held from the middle of April to the beginning of September, enabling students to gain additional clinical experience in summer and finance their education as well.
The vast majority of classes for the direct-entry master's nursing program are taught on our Boston campus in the Charlestown Navy Yard. Some may include online options or utilize the Internet for threaded discussions between classmates. An increasing number of courses are being offered completely online.
