(l-r) Josh Boyd, Anna Mudrytska, Chantelle Jones
Flexible, affordable master’s, certificate, and doctoral nursing tracks rank among nation’s best, rate high with graduates.
By Robin Shear
The University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies (SONHS) offers a wide range of graduate nursing programs, and for many current students, graduation day is fast approaching.
On track to complete her M.S.N. program this August, Anna Mudrytska, an oncology nurse at Baptist Hospital, returned to SONHS for an advanced nursing degree after successfully completing the school’s 12-month Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree in 2021. “From the beginning of my time with SONHS, I have been impressed with the UM experience,” she said. “The professors and quality of instruction truly are second to none.”
SONHS offers master’s, post-master’s certificate, and B.S.N.-D.N.P. options in the following specialties: Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner, and Family Nurse Practitioner. The School also offers a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Post-Master’s Certificate. Among hundreds of graduate nursing programs ranked by U.S. News & World Report, the M.S.N. and D.N.P. programs at SONHS rank 27th and 31st, respectively.
“SONHS is focused on developing the nursing workforce of the future,” said Dr. Hudson Santos, the School’s Dean and Dolores J. Chambreau, RN Endowed Chair in Nursing. “Our faculty guide students to the correct path through programs that blend state-of-the-art classroom and simulation learning with extensive clinical practice. As a result, our graduates master the skills they need to improve patient outcomes, excel on their specialty certification examinations, and become leaders in the health care community.”
Nurse practitioner Chantelle Jones completed her B.S.N. and M.S.N. degrees at SONHS in 2017 and 2020, respectively. She works in the Harvard University Health Services’ urgent care unit and says being a nurse practitioner opens up competitive salaries and strong job prospects.
“As someone who graduated from the Acute Care program at UM, I can say that it stands out for several reasons,” she said. “First, it offers a comprehensive educational experience with a strong emphasis on hands-on training. Students are likely to be placed in their preferred clinical settings, utilizing sites that provide a variety of practice environments. This allows them to gain real-world experience and understand the responsibilities of their roles early on. The preceptors are exceptional educators, and the course material is thorough and expertly taught.”
The School’s state-of-the-art, five-story Simulation Hospital Advancing Research and Education (S.H.A.R.E.®), added Jones, supports “comprehensive skills education in suturing, EFAST bedside ultrasonography, chest tubes, central lines, A-lines, paracentesis, and intubation. This is an opportunity many other programs do not offer.” In addition, she said, the Barkley review course is provided to help graduates prepare for their certification exams.
Josh Boyd, an emergency department charge nurse at Doctors Hospital, enrolled in the M.S.N. program at SONHS last year, after his significant other began the B.S.N.-D.N.P. Nurse Anesthesia program at SONHS. “Everything the acute care program offered has lived up to expectations,” said Boyd, “from clinical rotations being assigned to us and having fair input on where we want to be placed, to our intubation and airway rotations, to our central line skills, to being able to work on skills in the simulation hospital.”
Like Mudrytska, Boyd looks forward to graduating this August. “Everything they said on paper has been true and authentic, and I feel very lucky and blessed to be a part of this program,” he said. “I truly believe it is going to make me a stronger, better practitioner compared to those who have gone to other programs.”
For more information about UM nursing programs, tuition aid, scholarships, and more, call (305) 284-3666 or visit www.sonhs.miami.edu/academics/masters-programs/gradrfi/index.html.
