Graduate Certificate
Graduate Certificate in Nursing Education
Incoming 2020 students: You can enroll in N875 for fall 2020 without making formal application to the GCNE. Once your information is uploaded to NurSys and you have access, you will be able to register in late August or early September.
If you have a trouble registering for N875, please contact the sonregistrar@unc.edu
- Please log in to NurSys (nursys.unc.edu). On the left side of the screen, click ‘GCNE’ and then click ‘Apply for GCNE’ and follow the on-screen instructions.
Many master’s and doctoral nursing graduates will enter faculty roles with little preparation for teaching. This 9-credit hour Graduate Certificate in Nursing Education is designed to prepare nurses for educational roles in their setting of interest — hospital, community, or academic settings.
The purpose of this certificate is to provide specialized knowledge and skills in the area of nursing education to nurses who desire to concurrently develop these skills in teaching and learning along with their advanced nursing preparation.
Students enrolled in this certificate program will examine curricular foundations and expectations of contemporary nursing and health care education in academic or clinical settings. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the role of technology in curriculum development, implementation, and evaluation procedures in educational settings including academic education, staff development, patient education, and lifelong learning programs.
Courses include:
NURS 875 Principles of Teaching Applied to Nursing (3 cr) Fall semester
NURS 876 Innovations in Nursing and Health Care Educational Curricula (3 cr) Spring semester
NURS 882 Clinical Teaching in Nursing (3 cr) Summer
or
NURS 950 Analysis of the Academic Role in Nursing Education (3 cr) (Doctoral students; MSN with permission)
Phd Students Only
NURS N899.001 Mentored Teaching Practicum (1-3 cr) Fall 2017: You must arrange this with a PhD faculty member. If taken for 3 cr, this course could be taken as a variable credit elective or could meet the requirements for one of three courses required for the Nursing Faculty Loan Program (NFLP) or the Graduate Certificate in Nursing Education (GCNE).
To participate in the certificate program, students must be in good academic standing, that is, be actively pursuing the program of study in which they are enrolled and making satisfactory progress toward the completion of program requirements.
NOTE: If you are an education major in Health Care Systems, you do not need to apply for the certificate as these courses are a part of your degree program.
Once you apply, the GCNE coordinator will review your program of study and specify whether you have three credit hours that may be used for the 40% rule. You will receive an email outlining how many credits you will need to fulfill the certificate requirements and the requirements of your degree program.
Carefully read the information below. Keep in mind it may not represent your exact situation, however, the email you received at enrollment should clarify your situation.
MSN: For MSN students, there are no elective hours, thus, the 9 credits of nursing education courses must be in addition to your required degree requirements. The only exception to this are HCS-Clinical Nurse Leader students as one 3-credit nursing education course is in their required program of study (40% rule) — thus, they need only 6 credits above their required program total.
REMEMBER: If you are a MSN-education major in Health Care Systems, you do not need to apply for the certificate as these courses are a part of your degree program.
DNP and PhD: DNP and PhD students have required elective hours in their programs of study. Only one of the 3-credit nursing education courses may count for both the certificate and your doctoral degree.
- For DNP Students: Since you are required to have 4 credits of electives, you will need to take another 1 cr elective to meet the required program hours for your degree. This additional 1 credit cannot come from taking another nursing education certificate course.
- For PhD Students: For example, if you are required to complete 51 credit hours, you must have 57 cr hours to graduate with the certificate. That is, three credits of the 9-credit certificate program may count for both the certificate and your degree program
DNP—HCS: If you are required to have a substantive focus for your specialty area such as informatics, nursing education courses will not meet a substantive focus requirement. Thus, you need 9 credits above your required program total.
Yes. If you have successfully completed the 9-credit certificate program it will be indicated on your transcript. It is the responsibility of the student to make certain that 9-credits of coursework have been completed by the projected date of graduation.
Log in to NurSys (nursys.unc.edu). On the left side of the screen, click ‘GCNE’ and then click ‘Apply for GCNE’ and follow the on-screen instructions.
If you have any questions, please contact the Office of Student Affairs.
(p) 919-966-4260
(e) GCNE@unc.edu