Nursing  

NURS 801 - Introduction to Nursing
Credits: 2.00
Examines the values and philosophy of the Department of Nursing. Explores the four domain concepts of nursing: health and how it is defined, the diverse clients served by nursing, nursing as a profession, and the complex environment within which nursing is practiced. The nature of nurse-client encounters is explored with an emphasis on teaching students the skills to interact in a caring, facilitative manner.

NURS 802 - Concepts in Pathophysiology/Pharmacology
Credits: 4.00
Focuses on concepts of pathophysiology/pharmacology relevant to nursing practice. The physiologic response and manifestations of alterations on normal body functioning are analyzed and the effects of pharmacological agents on these alterations are examined. Prereq: NURS 801.
Co-requisites: NURS 808, NURS 814

NURS 808 - Foundations of Nursing Judgement
Credits: 4.00
Focuses on the knowledge and analytical skills required to adequately assess the health status of individuals. Students learn how to collect data using an assessment framework, to analyze the data, and to identify client resourses and problems. Emphasizes the implications of the individual's development status, culture, and biologic variations at all points in the assessment process. Prereq: NURS 801.
Co-requisites: NURS 802, NURS 814

NURS 810 - Families in Health and Illness
Credits: 3.00
Seminar focusing on the family environment as a context for the experience of health and illness. Current middle-range theories and research from nursing and other disciplines analyzed for their application to family health. Public policy initiatives related to family health will be explored.

NURS 814 - Techniques of Clinical Nursing
Credits: 4.00
Focuses on the aquisition of psychomotor and assessment skills required for the delivery of safe nursing care. Students begin by learning clinical skills in the simulation setting and then using those skills with supervision in the clinical setting. An additional focus of this course is understanding fundamental nursing concepts as they pertain to providing safe, effective care. Prereq: NURS 801, Lab. Special fee.
Co-requisites: NURS 802, NURS 808

NURS 815 - Care of the Adult
Credits: 8.00
Addresses the professional nursing practice, decision making processes, strategies and interventions as they relate to the care of adults who are experiencing chronic illnesses, acute illnesses, or impending death. The perspective adopted emphasizes the functional issues of daily living that these illnesses impose and the meanings these illnesses have for adults and their families within cultural, socioeconomic, sociopolitical, physical, and personal contexts. Prereq: NURS 801, 802, 808, 814. Special fee.
Co-requisites: NURS 819

NURS 818 - Caring for People with Alterations in Mental Health
Credits: 4.00
Provides an understanding of the concepts of mental health and major factors affecting human behavior and interaction. Uses specific theoretical concepts and psychosocial theories as a vehicle for supporting the person's and family's optimum state of well-being. Also emphasizes the practice of psychiatric nursing as being grounded on certain empirical, aesthetic, personal, and ethical knowledge. Through a variety of clinical experiences, the student applies mental health concepts, principles of therapeutic communication, and the nursing process in caring for individuals and families with alterations in mental health. Prereq: NURS 801, 802, 808, 814, 815, 819. Special fee.
Co-requisites:

NURS 819 - Clinical Decision Making I
Credits: 4.00
To practice effectively nurses must be able to gather data, interpret its meaning, take actions based on an understanding of the data, and evaluate outcomes. They also must be aware of the processes used to reach conclusions and be prepared to revise, adapt, or reject them. The course focuses on teaching learning theory, ethical decision making, and helping clients and families deal with situational and maturational crises, using a critical thinking framework. Prereq: NURS 801, 802, 808, 814.
Co-requisites: NURS 815

NURS 820 - Caring for the Childbearing and the Childbearing Family
Credits: 8.00
This course has family as the focus for nursing practice, introducing the student to the care of young families throughout pregnancy, birth, and child-rearing periods. Healthy transitions and physical alterations occurring from conception through adolescence are examined. The health needs of the young family are discussed in terms of major morbidity/motality and contemporary issues. Experience in various clinical settings will provide opportunities for the development of professional practice roles. Prereq: NURS 801, 802, 808, 814, 815, 818, 819, 823, 845. Special fee.
Co-requisites: NURS 822

NURS 822 - Clinical Decision Making II
Credits: 4.00
Emphasizes the clinical decision making process in the nursing care of individuals, families, and communities across the lifespan and from diverse backgrounds. Builds upon the theoretical foundation developed in 819, Clinical Decision Making I. Students strengthen expertise in developing clinical judgements, interventions, and outcome evaluations. Skills predicted upon attending to and processing relevant information from clinical situations. Students apply knowledge from clinical nursing courses in a variety of ways. Prereq: NURS 801, 802, 808, 814, 815, 818, 819, 823, 845.
Co-requisites: NURS 820

NURS 823 - Nursing Leadership/Management and the Organizational Context
Credits: 4.00
Focuses on understanding ways in which the nurse can affect the organizations in which practice occurs and ways in which the organizations affect the individual's practice. Emphasizes issues of leadership; management; power; change; motivation; and interfacing of autonomous, dependent, and interdependent nursing functions in current and future health care delivery systems. Prereq: NURS 801, 802, 808, 814, 815, 819.
Co-requisites:

NURS 824 - Community Health Nursing
Credits: 4.00
Explores the role of community health nursing in health promotion, disease prevention, and long-term care. Analyzes contemporary community health problems with implications for community health nursing. Exlpores a variety of clinical and population-focused roles in primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of health problems. Prereq: NURS 801, 802, 808, 814, 815, 818, 819. Special fee.
Co-requisites: NURS 845

NURS 845 - Nursing Research
Credits: 2.00 to 4.00
Focuses on enhancing the student's ability to evaluate, read, comprehend, participate in, and apply research to the practice of nursing. Prereq: NURS 801, 802, 808, 814, 815, 818, 819.
Co-requisites: NURS 824

NURS 850 - Clinical Decision Making III
Credits: 6.00
Provides opportunity for students to refine and integrate theory and practice from previous coursework into professional practice through cooperatively designed learning experience. Prereq: NURS 801, 802, 808, 814, 815, 818, 819, 820, 822, 823, 845. Special fee.
Co-requisites: NURS 850C

NURS 850C - Transition to Professional Nursing
Credits: 6.00
Provides opportunity for students to refine and integrate theory and practice from previous coursework into professional practice through cooperatively designed learning experience. Prereq: NURS 801, 802, 808, 814, 815, 818, 819, 820, 822, 823, 845. Special fee.
Co-requisites: NURS 850

NURS 894 - Special Topics
Credits: 1.00 to 4.00
Formal course given on selected topics or special interest subjects. Several topics may be taught in one year or semester. Prereq: permission. May be repeated.

NURS 898 - Master's Research Project
Credits: 3.00
Opportunity to develop, implement, and evaluate a project relevant to the practice setting. Prereq: permission. IA (continuous grading). Cr/F.

NURS 899 - Master's Thesis
Credits: 1.00 to 6.00
Prereq: permission. Cr/F.

NURS 900 - Discipline of Nursing
Credits: 3.00
Nursing as a discipline with a focus on paradigms for nursing science, patterns of knowing, concept analysis, and nursing theory. Emphasis on concepts fundamental to nursing practice, including advocacy, caring, power, and collaboration; analysis of nursing theories in relation to practice and research. Prereq: permission.

NURS 901 - Nursing and Change in Health Services
Credits: 3.00
Emphasizes identification of emerging issues that have an impact on the health care system and determination of nursing in providing leadership to address these issues. Students analyze problems and process solutions from a nursing perspective with reasoned approach to their resolution. Prereq: permission.

NURS 905 - Research
Credits: 3.00
Provides overview of current state-of-the-art research in nursing. Emphasis on critique of research findings and application of research to clinical practice. Prepares student to work collaboratively with expert researchers in either academic or clinical settings. Discusses types of research designs and qualitative and quantitative methods. Critique process focuses on individual components of research study, including the theory, purpose, sample, data collection procedures, and analysis. Includes ethical issues of scientific fraud and misconduct and issues of human subjects. Prereq: permission.

NURS 907 - Pharmacology
Credits: 3.00
Principles of pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics relevant to primary care practice. Focuses on major classes of drugs with an emphasis on knowledge necessary for prescriptive authority. Prereq: permission.

NURS 908 - Clinical Application of Human Physiology
Credits: 3.00
Examines human physiologic function and interaction of selected body systems in maintaining health. Clinical correlation strategies used to examine implications of recent advances in selected areas of human physiology to better understand the human body and its functioning in health and illness. Stresses application of course materials to advanced nursing practice in a variety of settings. Prereq: permission.

NURS 909 - Health and Illness Appraisal
Credits: 3.00
Advanced health assessment including communication strategies, functional health pattern assessment, advanced physical assessment, screening diagnostic tests, developmental evaluation, and clinical decision making. Lab and clinical component. Pre- or Coreq: NURS 900; 905; 907; 908. Special fee.

NURS 920 - Administrative Theories in Nursing
Credits: 3.00
Application of administrative theories and organizational behavior concepts to the practice of nursing administration in current and emerging health care settings. Examines organizational structure, motivation, leadership/management, decision making, creativity, and change. Prereq: permission.

NURS #921 - Administrative Context for Quality Nursing Care Delivery
Credits: 3.00
Identification of strategies to create an organizational context to enhance effective and efficient quality nursing practice in a variety of health care settings. Intra- and interdepartmental effectiveness, care delivery models, governance models, patient/client focused redesign, operations improvement programs, and human resource management are studied within an open systems focus.

NURS #922 - Resource and Financial Management in Nursing
Credits: 3.00
Strategies for the effective use of human and financial resources in health care systems. Explores budget development and control, business plan development, skill mix, costing of nursing services, computer uses, classification of systems and acuity determination of staffing/skill mix, and marketing of nursing service strategies in relation to fiscal responsibilities of the nurse and administrator.

NURS #929 - Practicum and Seminar in Nursing Administration
Credits: 6.00
Individualized practicum experience arranged to assist student in applying theoretical knowledge in the practice setting and to achieve personal goals related to development as a nurse administrator. Seminar topics selected to reflect issues arising from practicum experiences but will include ethical administrative considerations and nursing administration in future health care delivery systems. Prereq: permission. Special fee.

NURS 935 - Primary Care of the Adult
Credits: 3.00
Lecture/discussion course covering the primary care management of healthy adults through the lifespan with a focus on health maintenance and disease prevention. Focuses on evaluation and management of common acute and chronic adult health care problems. Major causes of adult morbidity are covered. Prereq: NURS 909. Special fee.

NURS 936 - Practicum in the Primary Care of Adults
Credits: 3.00
Supervised clinical experience in the primary care management of adults through the lifespan, including assessment and management of common acute and chronic clinical problems. Focuses on the clinical application of knowledge of health maintenance, disease prevention, and the evaluation and management of major causes of adult morbidity and mortality. Prereq: NURS 908; 909. Pre- or Coreq: NURS 907; 935. Special fee.

NURS 937 - Primary Care of Children
Credits: 3.00
Lecture/discussion course covering the primary care management of children across the health-illness continuum, including assessment and management of common acute and chronic clinical problems. A developmental perspective is taken to examine child-health evaluation and maintenance from infancy through adolescence. Prereq: NURS 909. Special fee.

NURS 938 - Practicum in the Primary Care of Children
Credits: 3.00
Supervised clinical experience in the primary care management of the child and adolescent, including assessment and management of common acute and chronic clinical problems. A family-centered developmental perspective is taken to provide child-health services from infancy through adolescence. Nursing care, family, and rehabilitation issues related to various health problems are investigated in practice. Prereq: NURS 908; 909. Pre- or Coreq: NURS 907; 937. Special fee.

NURS 939 - Seminar and Practicum in the Primary Care of Families
Credits: 6.00
Final integrative clinical course that allows for intensive application of primary care knowledge and skills in practice. Seminar allows for in-depth analysis of various clinical problems and role issues. Students are actively involved in a primary care setting appropriate to their area of study. Extensive clinical experience under the guidance of a preceptor. Prereq: NURS 935; 936; 937; 938. Special fee.

NURS 941 - Population Focused Practicum
Credits: 3.00
In this practicum students acquire the specialty knowledge and skills that are required in the care of a particular population. Students propose clinical performance competencies, learning activities, settings, and resource persons for the supervised practicum and complete a minimum of 112 perceptible clinical hours. May be repeated to a maximum of 6 credits. Prereq: NURS 935; 936. Special fee.
Co-requisites:

NURS 945 - Clinical Decision Making in Health Care
Credits: 3.00
Clinical decision making is analyzed and applied with a focus on integrating the humanistic, functional and medical frameworks of health care. An approach to identifying and analyzing ethical conflicts is developed, and culture-appropriate care is examined. Students consider the range management modalities that might benefit their populations of interest, and are assisted in expanding their repertoire of interventions. Pre- or Coreq: NURS 935; 936.

NURS 946 - Practicum in Adult Health Care
Credits: 6.00
Students design the precepted clinical experience to refine, expand, and/or re-focus existing clinical competencies with the objective of developing the ability to assess and manage complex client cases, and/or manage cases across clinical settings. Seminars involve presentation-discussions of case management situations, and discussion of role issues relevant to advanced practice roles. Pre- or Coreq: NURS 945. Special fee.

NURS 950 - Reading and Research in Advanced Nursing
Credits: 2.00 to 8.00
Through a process of selective review and critical evaluation, students examine the current literature and explore the issues and trends in their topic area. Students prepared by education and experience to do independent work under the guidance of a professor may register for one or more of these sections. Topics include: oncology, women's health, community nursing, case management, geriatric nursing, nursing care of children and families, nursing those with disabilities, quality improvement, special topics. Hours and credits to be arranged. Pre- or Coreq: NURS 900, 901, 905.

NURS 955 - Practicum in Advanced Nursing Practice
Credits: 3.00 to 6.00
Students acquire the specialty knowledge and skills required in the area of their master's study. Students work with their faculty mentor to propose performance competencies, learning activities, settings, and resource persons for this supervised practicum. Practicum must include a minimum of 112 hours of supervised practice. May be repeated. Pre- or Coreq: NURS 950. Special fee.

NURS #994 - Special Topics
Credits: 1.00 to 3.00
Formal course given on selected topics or special interest subjects. Several topics may be taught in one year or semester. Prereq: permission. May be repeated.

NURS 996 - Independent Study
Credits: 1.00 to 3.00
Opportunity for study and/or practice in an area of choice. Objectives are developed by students and must be approved by faculty. May be repeated. Prereq: permission.