Nursing Programs Overview

Human beings are individuals who are unique and ever-changing as they move toward achieving their own individual potential. They are accountable for their own actions and decisions, although their behavior is influenced by both internal factors such as state of health, life stage development, and age, as well as external factors such as environmental, socioeconomic status and cultural practices. Human beings are parts of families, groups, and communities.

Health is optimal body and mental functioning. It is a process by which an individual uses available resources to achieve his or her maximum potential or health. This requires effective balancing of internal and external systems. The inability to do so results in illness. Health is further defined by one’s perception of his/her own well-being. Everyone has the right to optimal healthcare which is a shared responsibility of health professionals and the individuals for whom they care.

The environment consists of the interaction between one’s internal and external systems. The internal system includes the individual’s biological, psychological, and spiritual components, while the external system is composed of a person’s social network, sociocultural influences, family, healthcare systems and political and economic policy. One’s external environment can influence health and healing in both positive and negative ways. Nursing strives to optimize the environment to promote health.

Nursing is an art and a science that provides a human service. It integrates biological principles, behavioral sciences, technological theories, research, and caring to assist individuals and families to reach their maximum health potential. The nurse/client relationship is collaborative as the goal of health promotion, health maintenance and health restoration is accomplished. Through the use of the nursing process and therapeutic communication skills, nurses provide caring and respectful care to their clients. Nurses collaborate with other healthcare professionals, consumers, and health care policy makers.

Provider of Care

1. Participates collaboratively in the nursing process by contributing to data collection for assessment, implementation, and evaluation of individualized plans of care.
2. Uses critical thinking, standards of practice and organizational skills in providing individualized nursing care to clients based on developmental, physiological, sociocultural, religious, and spiritual variations in clients.
3. Performs basic therapeutic nursing interventions using nursing knowledge, skills, and current technologies in a competent and safe manner.
4. Acts as a client advocate showing caring, empathy, and respect for the rights, beliefs, property and dignity of the individual.
5. Manages assignment of clients and delegates within the scope of practice to trained unlicensed personnel.
6. Practices the principles of effective and therapeutic communication with clients and their families.
7. Communicates pertinent observations related to the client to appropriate members of the health team.
8. Documents observations and care appropriately.

Member of the Discipline of Nursing Practices

1. Within the profession’s ethical and legal framework, being accountable for one’s own nursing practice and professional growth.

Provider of Care

1. Uses the nursing process (assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation and evaluation) and standards of practice as a basis for clinical decision making in developing individualized plans of care.
2. Performs complex therapeutic interventions using nursing knowledge, advanced skills, and current technology in a competent and safe manner.

Manager of Care

1. Demonstrates leadership and accountability.
2. Delegates tasks appropriately.
3. Supervises assistive and unlicensed personnel and PNs.
4. Manages client care within a multi-disciplinary health care system.
5. Collaborates and communicates effectively with clients, families, and health team members.

Member of the Discipline of Nursing

1. Demonstrates an awareness of community and world health issues and their impact on individuals and health care.

Provider of Care

1. Provides advanced clinical reasoning and problem solving skills when working with clients with more complex needs.
2. Manages advanced technology and applies scientific reasoning skills when applying evidence-based research findings in the clinical setting.
3. Ability to read and utilize appropriate research findings in the practice arena.
4. Develop strong humanistic and communication skills when caring for clients who have complex, multiple organ dysfunction, complicated family dynamics, and a need for collaboration with physicians and other departments for referral.

Manager of Care

1. Provides leadership in both structured and non-structured settings.
2. Ability to practice in community sites, such as health maintenance organizations, home health, community clinics, and managed care firms.
3. Applies advanced critical thinking skills to clinical decisions which enhance the quality of care of clients.

Member of the Discipline of Nursing

1. BSN level nurses are prepared to assume leadership roles in the community, join professional organizations, become an advocate at a legislative level, and complete specialty certification in their area of expertise.

Therapeutic interventions are the skills and techniques used by nurses to implement the plan of care developed in the nursing process. These skills and techniques help clients achieve the desired outcomes.

Culture refers to one’s values, beliefs, norms, and practices of these systems in one’s life. Cultural awareness or knowing about the similarities and differences among cultures helps to end prejudice and discrimination. Nurses must provide culturally competent care, appreciating the diversity and adapting care to fit the cultural context of the client.

Standards of practice are formal statements by a profession related to quality of care and accountability of its practitioners. Evidence based practice is essential for quality nursing care.

Nurses routinely practice using the beliefs and values inherent in professional nursing. Ethical decision making is guided by the Nurse’s Code of Ethics, while the Nurse Practice Act and governing laws provide rules of conduct and regulations to guide the nurse legally.

Nursing process is a specific problem solving method nurses use for decision making. It is comprised of five (5) specific steps:

1. Assessment
2. Diagnosis
3. Planning
4. Implementation using therapeutic interventions
5. Evaluation

Critical thinking is a purposeful process that enables a nurse to interpret, clarify and analyze nursing problems, as well as generate multiple therapeutic solutions, evaluating the merits and shortcomings of each. In this process, one monitors and reflects on his/her own thinking and learning.

Therapeutic communication is an art in which nurses use interpersonal skills to help clients communicate their thoughts and feelings while displaying non-judgmental acceptance that promotes trust, an essential element to the therapeutic nurse-client relationship. Communication techniques, self-awareness and collaborative skills are essential components of therapeutic communication.

Caring is an art in which the nurse watches over, attends to, and provides for the needs of clients. Essential to caring is an attitude of respect, empathy, and nurturing. Client advocacy is acting in the best interest of the client. Nurses must advocate for clients who are unable to do so for themselves.

Leadership is a role and a process in which the nurse involves others in their plan for action. The leader must use the skills of facilitation, coordination, communication and mentoring to get others to work more effectively. Management regulates care and resources through planning, organizing, directing, delegating, coordinating, and controlling.

Graduates of the Practical Nursing and the Associate Degree in Nursing programs must have the essential skills and knowledge to function in a broad variety of healthcare settings and demonstrate a commitment to life-long learning.

Essential functions are those processes, procedures, or behaviors that nursing professionals must perform in the ordinary course of their duties. Essential job functions are non-academic qualities that employees must possess in order to be successful in the field. Students in the Practical Nursing and Associate Degree in Nursing programs must carry out several essential functions in order to safeguard patients, fellow students, instructors, and the general public. These essential functions are also necessary in order for the student to successfully complete the Practical Nursing or Associate Degree in Nursing program.

If a student or applicant has a disability and thinks that they may require a reasonable accommodation to meet these essential functions, then the student or applicant should refer to the process outlined in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) policy in this Catalog.

Practical Nursing and Associate Degree in Nursing students understand and acknowledge that these essential functions include, but are not limited to:

Critical Thinking: Students must demonstrate the ability to have clinical judgment to provide safe, quality patient care; and the ability to acquire, assimilate, integrate, and apply information, and problem solve.

Interpersonal:

• Students must be able to recognize and accept responsibility for his or her own mistakes and behavior, without making excuses or blaming others.

• Students must demonstrate acceptance of differences of race and culture.

• Students must be able to engage in actions that support team workmanship and respond to corrections and criticism without being quarrelsome or defensive.

Communication:

• Student must be able to communicate fluently in English by written and oral and/or alternate means, including the ability to successfully receive and transmit information.

• Student must be able to read and follow instructions and ask for clarification, if necessary.

Sensory:

• Student must be able to perform close and distance visual activities involving objects, persons, and paperwork as well as discriminate depth and color perception.

• Student must be able to perform a patient assessment through visualization, direct and indirect auscultation, and detection of odors, palpation, and percussion.

• Student must be able to discriminate between sharp/dull and hot/cold when using hands.

• Student must be able to respond and react immediately to auditory requests, instructions, monitor equipment, and perform auditory auscultation without auditory impediments.

Motor: Student must demonstrate dexterity and range of motion conducive to assisting patients and manipulating equipment without threatening harm or violating safety protocols.

Mobility:

• Student must be able to engage in and sustain physical activity that may require sitting, standing, or walking for extended periods of time.

• Student must be able to lift and transfer patients up to six inches from a stooped position, then push or pull the patient up to three feet. In addition, the student must be able to lift and transfer patients from a stooped to an upright position to accomplish bed-to-chair and chair-to-bed transfers.

• Student must be able to physically apply up to 10 pounds of pressure to bleeding sites or in performing CPR.

• Student must be able to physically perform up to a 12-hour clinical experience.

Behavioral: Student must be able to accurately perform duties in a stressful environment. This includes, but is not limited to, identifying and responding to emergency and non-routine situations.

Cognitive: Student must be able to use previous theory content/skills to enhance learning; comprehend written and verbal information; apply previous content/skills in new situations; and organize and synthesize facts and concepts.

Ethical: Student must uphold honesty and personal integrity in all campus/clinical activities, and must be able to function as a patient advocate when planning and implementing nursing care.