2003 - 2004 Nursing Courses

A comprehensive study of nutritional principles applicable to people throughout the life span. Students learn nutritional assessment and the impact of personal, religious, and regional beliefs and customs on nutritional status. Dietary implications during critical developmental periods and during metabolic changes caused by patho-physiological processes are discussed. Prerequisites: BIOL 103, 104; CHEM 103.

Introduces the student to the psychological, physiological, and biochemical effects of the major therapeutic pharmaceutical agents used in the treatment of clients. Nurses' responsibilities, including evaluation of the client's responses and appropriate nursing interventions, are discussed. Prerequisites: BIOL 104; CHEM 103, 201; MATH 105; NURS 280.

Provides students with knowledge of pathophysiological processes and environmental factors that influence or alter an individual's health. Prerequisites: BIOL 103, 104; CHEM 103, 201; concurrent enrollment in BIOL 111.

Special topics and workshops. May be repeated for credit.

Focuses on the nursing assessment of the health status of clients throughout the life span. The emphasis is on the development of interviewing and physical assessment skills as the basis for clinical decision-making in the nursing process. Prerequisite: admission to the nursing program.

An introduction to the organizing framework of the curriculum and to the principles of the basic clinical skills of nursing practice. The course focuses on providing students with the conceptual basis for understanding the client's interaction with the environment, functional health patterns, the nursing process, and the roles and responsibilities of the professional nurse. Students use the nursing process with individual clients in hospital or residential-care settings, with emphasis on basic clinical and communication skills, assessment of functional health patterns, care plans, and nursing diagnosis. Prerequisite: admission to the nursing program.

Provides students with the conceptual basis for understanding health and alterations in health of adult clients. The course focuses on the roles and responsibilities of the professional nurse and the mental, emotional, social, and environmental factors that alter the client's health. Students use the nursing process to provide nursing care to adult clients in a variety of clinical settings. Prerequisites: NURS 220, 302, 303; concurrent enrollment in NURS 390.

Focuses on the physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual aspects of aging, and the role of the professional nurse in health maintenance and promotion. The student assesses the health patterns and the environmental factors impacting the older adult client and identifies community resources available for providing health care services. Prerequisites: NURS 220, 302, 303.

Designed to provide students with the conceptual basis for understanding health and alterations in the health of the childbearing family. The course focuses on the role of the professional nurse in the assessment and management of the physiological status and the mental, emotional, social, and environmental adjustments of the mother-baby dyad and the family unit. Emphasis is placed on using the nursing process to provide nursing care for the childbearing family and its individual members in a variety of clinical settings. Prerequisite: completion of, or concurrent enrollment in, NURS 304, 390.

Provides students with the conceptual basis for understanding health and alterations in the health of children and families and the roles and responsibilities of the professional nurse. The course focuses on normal growth and development, physical assessment, and care of the child from birth through adolescence. Emphasis is placed on using the nursing process to provide nursing care to the child and the family in a variety of clinical settings. Ethical, moral, and legal concepts related to child health nursing practice are addressed. Prerequisites: NURS 304, 390.

Provides students with the conceptual basis for understanding nursing theory and the research process. Students critique nursing research reports and begin to evaluate research findings for application to nursing practice. Prerequisites: MATH 150; admission to the nursing program.

Seminar or practicum offered to develop professional competencies in a specialized area. Prerequisite: senior nursing student and consent of instructor and school dean.

A tutorial-based course used only for student-initiated proposals for intensive individual study of topics not otherwise offered in the Nursing Program. Prerequisites: junior or senior standing and consent of advisor, instructor, and school dean.

Provides students with the conceptual basis for understanding multiple and complex alterations in health and the roles and responsibilities of the professional nurse to individuals and families in critical care settings. The student uses the nursing process to provide nursing care to clients in a highly technical environment and functions in a collaborative relationship as a member of the health care team. The course affords a high level of critical thinking and independent decision making. Prerequisites: NURS 304, 390.

Designed to provide the student with the conceptual basis for understanding mental health and alterations in the mental health of the client, within a biopsychosocial context, and the roles and responsibilities of the professional psychiatric nurse. The course focuses primarily on therapeutic communications and nurse-client relationships, conceptual models of psychiatric nursing, and nursing intervention with clients who have significant alterations in mental health. The student uses the nursing process to provide psychiatric nursing care to individuals and groups in a variety of clinical settings. Prerequisite: completion of all junior-year nursing courses.

A comprehensive course that focuses on community health nursing concepts and professional nursing practice as a basis toward achievement of optimal health for families and communities. Emphasis is placed on community assessment, family assessment, health promotion, and planning for the health of communities, families, and individuals across the life span. Principles of epidemiology are utilized. The interactions of the environment and changing health care delivery systems in relation to the health needs and services in the community are analyzed. Theories relevant to community health nursing are applied in community settings. Prerequisite: completion of all junior-year nursing courses.

This course integrates the nursing process with the concepts of leadership, organizational theory, group dynamics, power, problem solving, change, and conflict. The impact of professional nursing on health care systems from its historical roots through the present and future is considered. The role of the nurse as a leader and manager of patient care is explored and described. Prerequisite: completion of all junior-year nursing courses.