The purpose of this graduate certificate is to provide a theoretical and practical foundation in nursing education for staff development role or Master's prepared nurses who wish to assume the role of nursing faculty in an associate or baccalaureate degree nursing program. This certificate will provide the opportunity to acquire some of the basic skills utilized by the nurse educator. This certificate can also be used to target bachelor prepared nurses who may be teaching in a community college setting by exception (faculty hired without required credentials due to a lack of qualified faculty) and desire career mobility to attain a faculty position in that same setting. The certificate can serve as the first step toward the MSN degree, thus providing a ladder into graduate programming for bachelor prepared nurses. This certificate provides 12 credits of focused coursework in the areas of learning theory, cognition, curriculum and instructional design, and evaluation nursing education programs. The 12 credits of this certificate also comprise the nursing education specialty concentration for the MSN degree.