Nursing, Adult-Gerontology Clinical Nurse Specialist Concentration

This program is designed for registered nurses with a baccalaureate degree in nursing, and builds on the knowledge base and practical experience that prepares the student for advanced professional practices. In just seven semesters, our graduates are ready to become clinical nurse specialists.

As a student in the M.S. with a major in Nursing program at St. Joseph's University, you will learn from highly credentialed faculty while becoming specialized as a clinical nurse specialist in adult gerontology. 

The mission of the Nursing Department is to provide professional nursing education at the graduate level that develops and supports a learner-centered environment that ignites a spirit of inquiry and a commitment to lifelong learning and reflective practice. The program supports active engagement in multiple ways of knowing, while integrating nursing knowledge, related sciences and the humanities to refine nursing practice.

Through the intentional use of transformational experiences across the curriculum, the development of professional and personal identity in the ways of knowing and being is emphasized. In this way, the Nursing Department supports the University's mission of preparing each student for a life characterized by integrity, intellectual rigor, spiritual depth, social responsibility and service — a life that is worthy of the University's motto: Esse non videri — to be and not to seem.

Graduate End-Of-Program Learning Outcomes

• Synthesize theoretical and empirical knowledge from nursing, humanities and the sciences to provide rationale for practice as a master’s prepared nurse
• Integrate leadership concepts, knowledge and skills to provide safe, high-quality care for diverse populations within complex organizational systems.
• Advocate for relationships that support individual and population health outcomes through interprofessional collaboration.
• Exemplify a life characterized by integrity, intellectual rigor, spiritual depth, social responsibility and service.
• Actualize way of being through multiple ways of knowing to support a culture of excellence in master’s level nursing practice.

Adult-Gerontology Clinical Nurse Specialist

The clinical nurse specialist concentration prepares students for the multifaceted role of the CNS in a variety of health care settings.

Graduates who complete the Adult-Gerontology CNS program meet eligibility for national certification through the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN) and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).