enrolled in a graduate-level nursing administration program. Emerging nurse leaders must be well
prepared to facilitate high quality, safe patient care in an ever-changing healthcare environment. In 2010, the
Institute of Medicine (IOM) published a report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change; Advancing Health,
recommending that nursing education provide learning opportunities that promote leadership competencies in
decision-making, quality improvement, systems thinking, and team leadership. The Institute for Healthcare
Improvement (IHI) Triple Aim highlights priority areas in which nurses must be prepared to lead (IHI, 2018).
The IHI report calls for nurse leaders to be prepared to understand and stratify the needs of their populations,
to activate those populations to improve their health, and to map and utilize all of the assets
in their communities to achieve improvements in health, experience of care, and costs. The American
Association of Colleges of Nursing’s (AACN) Essentials of Masters Education in Nursing (2011) parallels the
IOM (2010) and IHI Triple Aim (2018) recommendations by highlighting organizational and systems
leadership as core curriculum components. Two nationally recognized professional practice organizations, the
American Organization for Nurse Executives (AONE, 2015) and the Quad Council of Public Health Nursing
Organizations (Association of Community Health Nursing Educators [ACHNE], 2011) have developed core
competencies for nurse leaders that are critical for impacting both population health outcomes and health
systems change. A university-based online Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), with a nursing administration
focus, has been designed to incorporate both AONE and Quad Council leadership competency domains. The
program embeds a population health focus into the knowledge and skills acquisition processes of advanced
practice nurse leaders. Based on the AONE and Quad Council competency domains, a clinical evaluation tool
was developed and implemented throughout the curriculum. Students are engaged in a variety of clinical settings
that emphasize population health outcomes across health systems. Clinical learning experiences are designed
collaboratively among students, faculty, and community partners. Specific competency domains are
emphasized at each designated level of the clinical learning experience. Competency in each applicable domain
is evaluated from the level of foundational to proficient as the student progresses in clinical knowledge and
experience. Upon completion of the MSN Nursing Administration program, experiences have been designed
and clinical competency has been evaluated across all domains. Development and utilization of a clinical
evaluation tool based on professional competencies provides a means for documenting the student’s progression
and growth in both leadership knowledge and skill.