University of Mary Nursing Informatics Programs

Saint Gianna School of Health Sciences, College of Nursing • Bismarck, ND • Online • $525–$600/Credit

University of Mary offers 3 Nursing Informatics programs:

  • MSN
  • MSN/MS in Bioethics (dual degree)
  • Graduate Certificate

Program Overview

Program Est. Tuition Est. Duration Credits
MSN: Nursing and Health Care Informatics $23.4K 1.6 years (5 semesters) 39
MSN/MS: Health Care Informatics and Bioethics $39.0K 2 years (6 semesters) 65
Health Care Informatics Certificate $6.3K 8 months (2 semesters) 12

The MSN asks for 500 experiential hours, well above ANCC’s 200-hour graduate pathway, and its four core informatics courses are the same four that make up the certificate. Nurses can also earn a second master’s, in bioethics, in about two years.

Quick Facts

Feature Details
Program Types MSN; MSN/MS in Bioethics dual degree; graduate certificate
Format Online; dual degree adds up to three Bismarck campus visits
Practicum Hours 500 experiential hours in the MSN
Practicum Placement Not clearly stated
RN License Required Yes, current and unencumbered, for the MSN and dual degree
Who It’s For BSN nurses moving into informatics roles; ethics-minded nurse leaders
Distinctive Coursework Human-technology interface, ethics and informatics, two health care innovation courses
Certification Pathway Hours exceed ANCC’s 200-hour practicum pathway, if faculty-supervised
Tuition $600 per credit (master’s), $525 (certificate), plus $55 per credit technology fee
Accreditation CCNE (master’s); HLC institutional
Start Terms MSN and dual degree start in fall only

MSN: Nursing and Health Care Informatics

The estimated tuition for the BSN to MSN: Nursing and Health Care Informatics at University of Mary is approximately $23,400 (39 credits at $600/credit).

The program can generally be completed in about 1.6 academic years (5 semesters, 80 weeks).

MSN Curriculum

Half the credits are a shared graduate nursing core in research, evidence-based practice, leadership, and policy. The other half is informatics, ending in a two-course innovation sequence.

  • NUR 590 Principles of Informatics in Health Care Professions (3)
  • NUR 594 Ethics and Informatics (3)
  • NUR 597 Professional Domain of Nursing Informatics (2)
  • NUR 660 Human Technology Interface (3)
  • NUR 667 Applied Clinical Informatics in Patient Centered Care (3)
  • NUR 696 and 697 Leading Healthcare Innovation I and II (6)
  • NUR 551 Critique and Design of Nursing Research (3)
  • NUR 614 Resilient Nursing Leadership (4)
  • NUR 648 Health Care Law and Policy (3)
  • NUR 699 Preparation for Thesis (1)

More curriculum details are available here.

You Should Know
  • ⚠️ The 2026-27 catalog lists a 39-credit total, but its course list sums to 40 (20 core plus 20 specialty). This profile uses the stated 39; a 40-credit plan would cost about $24,000.
  • The program page says “two years,” and the nursing college site says 16 to 24 months. The catalog’s 80-week figure is used here.
  • The curriculum has no programming, database, or statistics course. Its technical content is applied clinical informatics and human-technology interface design.

MSN Practicum and Capstone

  • The catalog lists 500 experiential hours; the program page calls them clinical hours.
  • Which courses carry the hours, and how sites are found, is Not clearly stated.
  • NUR 699 Preparation for Thesis (1) and the innovation sequence lead to a final paper.

Five hundred hours is two and a half times ANCC’s 200-hour minimum for its graduate-program pathway. If the hours are faculty-supervised, as that pathway requires, graduates clear the practice-hour requirement through the degree. Spread over about five semesters, the hours average roughly 100 per term, but the actual load depends on when they fall.

MSN Admissions

Requirements are typical for a BSN-entry MSN, and no work experience minimum is listed.

  • BSN or BAN from an accredited program.
  • Current, unencumbered RN license.
  • Undergraduate GPA of 2.75 or higher.
  • Resume and two professional references.
  • Prior learning credit available by testing or portfolio review.
  • Fall start only; the next listed start is September 6, 2027.

MSN/MS: Health Care Informatics and Bioethics

The estimated tuition for the MSN and Health Care Informatics/MS in Bioethics dual degree at University of Mary is approximately $39,000 (65 credits at $600/credit).

The program can generally be completed in about two years (6 semesters).

Dual Degree Curriculum

Students take the full informatics specialty, a 19-credit nursing core, and 26 bioethics credits. The two innovation courses double as the program’s health policy and bioethics requirement.

  • All seven MSN informatics specialty courses (20)
  • HCB 555 Key Principles in Health Care Ethics (3)
  • HCB 565 Bioethics Across the Lifespan (3)
  • HCB 630 Law and Bioethics (3)
  • HCB 650 Health Care and Biomedical Industry (3)
  • HCB 660 Medicine and Bioethics (3)
  • HCB 670 Bioethics Seminar and Practicum (2)

More curriculum details are available here.

You Should Know
  • Year one of bioethics can be four University of Mary courses or the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) certification, which may be transcripted for up to 10 credits.
  • The program is rooted in Catholic and Benedictine tradition, and the bioethics courses include Faith and Reason.
  • Dual degree students complete a bioethics practicum, apply an ethical framework to their final paper, and present at a research colloquium.
  • The catalog credit list reconciles to 65: 19 nursing core, 20 informatics, 12 year-one bioethics, and 14 year-two bioethics.

Dual Degree Admissions

  • Same requirements as the MSN, including a current, unencumbered RN license.
  • Delivered online “with up to three visits” to the Bismarck campus.
  • Fall start.

Health Care Informatics Certificate

The estimated tuition for the Health Care Informatics Certificate at University of Mary is approximately $6,300 (12 credits at $525/credit).

The program can generally be completed in about eight months.

Certificate Curriculum

The certificate is four courses, all taken from the MSN’s informatics specialty.

  • NUR 590 Principles of Informatics in Health Care Professions (3)
  • NUR 594 Ethics and Informatics (3)
  • NUR 660 Human Technology Interface (3)
  • NUR 667 Applied Clinical Informatics in Patient Centered Care (3)

More curriculum details are available here.

You Should Know
  • The certificate is not eligible for Title IV federal financial aid.
  • The courses match the MSN, but the university does not say whether certificate credits transfer into the degree.
  • The certificate page describes it for nurses and “professionals”; an RN license requirement is Not clearly stated.

Certificate Admissions

  • Minimum cumulative GPA of 2.75.
  • Fall and spring starts; the next listed start is January 4, 2027.

Tuition

University of Mary charges $600 per credit for both master’s options and $525 per credit for the certificate. A $55 per-credit technology and distance learning fee applies to all online students.

Program Credits Tuition With $55/Credit Fee
MSN 39 $23,400 $25,545
MSN/MS dual degree 65 $39,000 $42,575
Certificate 12 $6,300 $6,960
  • There is no residency difference.
  • Eligible MSN students can receive up to $5,000 in scholarships.
  • Rates come from each program page and the online tuition and fees page.

Be aware that:

  • The university says prices are listed for each program’s start date where possible but does not label an academic year.
  • If the MSN totals 40 credits, as its course list does, all-in cost is about $26,200.
  • Travel for the dual degree’s campus visits is extra.

All in, the MSN costs about $25,500, and the dual degree adds roughly $17,000 for a second master’s.

Why Choose This Nursing Informatics Program?

A match for nurses who want an informatics master’s with heavy applied hours, or a second credential in ethics.

Choosing a pathway. The certificate is the low-cost test of interest, and its four courses are the core of the MSN. The MSN is the standard route to informatics roles and ANCC certification. The dual degree suits nurses heading toward ethics committees, policy, or leadership, where data governance and bioethics meet.

The trade-offs. The curriculum is applied and leadership-oriented rather than technical. The 500 hours are a large time commitment for a working nurse, and the catalog does not explain how they are scheduled or placed.

Mission fit. The programs are explicitly Catholic and Benedictine, which some students will value and others will not.

Accreditation

The program page states that the University of Mary’s baccalaureate, master’s, and DNP nursing programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). The MSN in Nursing and Health Care Informatics falls within the accredited master’s program. The bioethics MS and the certificate fall outside CCNE’s scope.

The University of Mary is institutionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.

The ANCC Informatics Nursing Certification requires an RN license, a nursing bachelor’s, two years of RN practice, and 30 hours of informatics continuing education. One practice-hour option is a graduate informatics nursing program with at least 200 hours of faculty-supervised practicum, which the MSN’s 500 hours would exceed.

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