RN Program Course Descriptions
PHARMACOLOGY (NUR 111)
This course will include the opportunity for students to learn pharmacological principles through the nursing process and drug therapy. In accordance with the philosophy of the program, student will learn pharmacological considerations across the life span; considerations of culture, legalities, and ethics. Student will be presented with prevention and responses to medication errors. Student will also learn how to manage patient medication education. Each medication will have a format of drug mechanisms of action and drug effects; drug indication; drug contraindications; adverse reactions toxicity and management of overdose; drug interactions; and drug dosages. Nursing content will also include the use of a pharmacokinetic bridge to the nursing process assessment, nursing diagnosing, planning goals and outcomes, implementation, and evaluation.Pre-requisites: Admission into the nursing program
Co-requisites: None |
NURSING HEALTH ASSESSMENT (NUR 112)
This course will prepare students for obtaining physical, psychological, social, cultural, and spiritual information from individuals across the life span. Health assessment with varying ethnicities and diverse groups and for individuals with and without health issues will be presented. Students will learn objective, non-judgmental physical assessment; to listen to the patient’s body, to the patient, and to the patient’s family; to develop, practice, and learn to trust their abilities to take a health history and to conduct a physical examination. Students will learn to synthesize large amounts of patient information using appropriate equipment and supplies with skill; to motivate patients and their families how to mobilize resources for health maintenance. Areas to be covered will include: activities of daily living; abuse screening of violence-domestic and otherwise; health teaching topics for health promotion techniques; clinical assessment tools pain assessment and its meaning; history taking methods; nurses’ notes. Students will continue to learn and begin to use therapeutic communication skills while listening to the patient and their families, and while collecting data.Pre-requisites: Admission into the nursing program
Co-requisites: NUR 111 |
NUTRITION (NUR 114)
This Nutrition course introduces students to the principles of basic nutrition. It guides students through the life span by discussing the nutritional needs of each group pregnancy and lactation; infants, childhood, and adolescence; and adult years early, middle, and later years. Because contemporary life is lived in community, and healthcare advocates understanding the community and community supports, this course explores community nutritional issues the food supply, food habits and cultural and ethnic patterns, weight management, and physical fitness. The course will enable the student to explore nutritional needs and care in persons with different medical conditions gastro intestinal and accessory organs, coronary heart disease and hypertension, diabetes mellitus, kidney disease, surgery, and cancer and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.Pre-requisites: NUR 111, NUR 112, NUR 113
Co-requisites: None |
MEDICAL-SURGICAL NURSING I (NUR 115)
This course will discover and explore health promotion and health and illness care of adults through old age and end-of-life and from various cultural backgrounds employing critical thinking skills. Concepts of biophysical alternative medicine in presence of conventional medicine, as well as substance abuse and medical/surgical nursing are presented. Students will study the concepts of pain and genetics. The body’s fluid and electrolytes and acid-base balance will be studied using the nursing process. Therapeutic communication and relationship skills introduced in earlier courses continue throughout medical/surgical nursing courses as students progress through concepts of rehabilitation and chronicity, emergency, trauma, and disaster preparedness and the care of various individual patients and groups of patients. Students will review infusion and intravenous therapy. Students will learn to practice health assessment and physical examination, pharmacological information, NANDA-approved nursing diagnoses, NIC/NOC classifications for interventions and outcomes, and ANA Standards of Nursing Care.Pre-requisites: NUR 111, NUR 112, NUR 113
Co-requisites: NUR 114 |
ADVANCED NURSING SKILLS (NUR 116)
All skills in this course will be presented using the nursing process assessment, NANDA nursing diagnoses, planning, expected outcomes, implementation, and evaluation. Specific requirements for activities prior to and following each procedures: supervision in the clinical setting; chart review physician’s orders; treatment plan review; procedure review; patient assessment; patient and family teaching including audiovisual and written materials; cultural considerations; therapeutic communication and therapeutic relationship skills; use of translators for language barriers; continuous ‘head-to-toe’ assessment; assessment before, during and following procedures; documentation; and changes in the treatment following the procedure. Skills in this course will be in advance of those in the Fundamentals course to include: skills of measurements; skills for safety and infection control; comfort skills; medication administration including, but not limited to a review of all medications; and the addition of all intravenous medications; controlled analgesic administration, controlled substances; oxygenation administration and maintenance; circulatory skills including venipuncture, heparin locks; total parenteral nutrition; Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters (PICC); arterial blood gases; central venous catheter (CVP); transfusions; skin and wound care; immobilization and support; and special procedures.Pre-requisites: NUR 111, NUR 112, NUR 113
Co-requisites: NUR 114, NUR 115 |
PEDIATRIC NURSING (NUR 117)
This course will incorporate the objectives set out by the Healthy People 2010. This course will focus on children, their families, and the nurse which will include pediatrics care in contemporary society; various influences on the child’s health the family, social, cultural, and religious; therapeutic communication skills and therapeutic relationships with children and their families, and health assessment of children. The course will review of the growth and development of children infants through adolescence; investigate special needs, including hospitalization and health dysfunctions in children through each bodily system respiratory, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, hematologic, immunologic, cerebral, endocrine, integumentary, musculoskeletal, and neuromuscular.Pre-requisites: NUR 114, NUR 115, NUR 116
Co-requisites: None |
MATERNITY NURSING (NUR 118)
This course will focus on the utilization of the nursing process and critical thinking in the care of childbearing families. Content includes application of biological, social, therapeutic communication skills, therapeutic relationships, and developmental theory in the promotion, restoration, and maintenance of health. This course will investigate contemporary approaches to maternity nursing to include family, culture, community, and home care. Health assessment and health promotion, as well as infertility, conception, and abortion are included in this course. A complete study of pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum periods will be presented. The course will also cover the physiologic adaptations of the newborn nursing care, nutrition and feeding, gestational age-related problems, and the infant at-risk for acquired and congenital problems. Clinical experiences will provide opportunities for the application of knowledge and skills in the care of childbearing families.Pre-requisites: NUR 114, NUR 115, NUR 116
Co-requisites: None |
PSYCHIATRIC NURSING (NUR 211)
This 7-week theory and clinical course presents the promotion and maintenance of the highest level of mental health across the life span. It presents the principles and practices of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing which is interwoven with the biological, psychological, sociological, cultural, and spiritual realities of individual, families, groups and communities. Theories of therapeutic relationships and environment will be introduced. Legal and ethical issues will be explored as they relate to psychiatric nursing care. The skill of therapeutic communication using therapeutic communication techniques introduced in NUR101, will be developed and practiced with patients, peers, and colleagues. Students will explore the concepts and nursing care for individuals, family, groups, and communities involving substance abuse and the gamut of psychiatric diagnoses and conditions personality disorders to psychotic disorders. Students will learn the use and practice of the Mental Status Examination, DSM-IV-TR, Psychotropic drug information, NANDA-approved nursing diagnoses, NIC/NOC classifications for interventions and outcomes, and Standards of care.Pre-requisites: PSY 101, PSY 201, NUR 117, NUR 118
Co-requisites: BIO 220 |
MEDICAL-SURGICAL NURSING II (NUR 212)
This theory and clinical course presents the promotion and maintenance of medical and surgical health for conditions in the adult patient. The course presents the principles and practices of conditions which are interwoven with the biological, psychological, sociological, cultural, and spiritual realities of individual, families, groups and communities. Theories of planning patients care; patient teaching and learning; cultural competence—awareness, skill, encounter, knowledge, and desire; therapeutic relationships and environment will be continued. Development of nursing care for persons with conditions of the upper and lower respiratory system which are infectious and non-infectious will be studied. Conditions of the body’s connective tissue as well as those of the immune system arthritis, HIV and other immune deficiencies, allergies, and cancer will also be studied. The student will also care for patients experiencing conditions of the cardiovascular and hematological systems, and those with problems of the neurological/sensation/cognition functions of the body. The skills of administering total patient care, using therapeutic communication techniques to develop therapeutic relationships will be developed and practiced with patients, peers, and colleagues. Advanced nursing skills will be practiced as students continue to use contemporary research/evidence to support practice. Students will continue to practice health assessment and physical examination, pharmacological information, NANDA-approved nursing diagnoses, NIC/NOC classifications for interventions and outcomes, and ANA Standards of Nursing Care.Pre-requisites: NUR 117, NUR 118
Co-requisites: BIO 220 |
MEDICAL-SURGICAL NURSING III (NUR 213)
This theory and clinical course presents the promotion and maintenance of medical and surgical health for conditions of adults. It presents principles and practices of conditions which are interwoven with the biological, psychological, sociological, cultural, and spiritual realities of individual, families, groups and communities. Theories of patient care planning; patient teaching and learning; cultural competence awareness, skill, encounter, knowledge, and desire; therapeutic relationships and environment will be continued. Legal and ethical issues will be explored. Conditions of body systems visual and hearing; musculoskeletal; and endocrine; excretory; reproductive; nutrition/digestion/elimination, and regulatory functions of the body are also explored. The skill of total patient care will be developed and practiced with patients and their families. Therapeutic communication will be practiced with peers, patients, and faculty. Advanced nursing skills will be practiced as students continue to use contemporary research/evidence to support practice. Students will continue to practice health assessment and physical examination, pharmacological information, NANDA-approved nursing diagnoses, NIC/NOC classifications for interventions and outcomes, and ANA Standards of Nursing Care.Pre-requisites: BIO 220, NUR 211, NUR 212
Co-requisites: None |
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