Indiana University of Pennsylvania (Department of Nursing and Allied Health Professions)

Since the founding of The Department of Nursing and Allied Health Professions in 1968, IUP offers a tradition of preparing professional nurses to meet the challenging demands of health care. Over 2300 students have graduated from the Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree program and more than 300 students have graduated from the Master of Science in Nursing degree program. These graduates take their strong nursing education and liberal studies foundation with them into exciting and challenging clinical practices settings. Alumni are found practicing nursing in health care facilities throughout Pennsylvania and across the country and throughout the world.

Both the baccalaureate and master’s degree programs are fully accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) through December 2009 attesting to the quality of the program and the continued commitment of support for these degrees.

MISSION

The mission of the department is to define, provide, and advance the education for the development of professionals within the fields of nursing and allied health. The mission of the nursing program is to provide undergraduate and graduate education for students whose academic and professional goals are directed toward a career in professional nursing. The program challenges students to develop their abilities to provide care for culturally diverse populations with changing health needs. Undergraduate students have a liberal education, are clinically competent, and are prepared to function at a beginning level of professional practice. Graduate students are prepared for leadership roles. The nursing faculty supports the expansion of nursing science through scholarly work, and fosters a commitment to lifelong learning and community service.

PHILOSOPHY

The philosophy of the programs of Nursing is consistent with the mission of Indiana University of Pennsylvania and the College of Health and Human Services. The philosophy is informed by Neuman’s systems model from which the working definitions of the major nursing paradigms (person, environment, health, illness, and nursing) are drawn. The faculty is committed to providing a high quality professional education that builds on a base of liberal studies and promotes life-long learning.

The person is an open system that interacts with the environment and its stressors in an effort to seek and maintain health. The “person” indicates the recipients of care by nurses: individuals, families, groups and communities. Each person is a synergistic blend of body, mind and spirit with unique beliefs, ideals and expectations. Each person has inherent worth and dignity, is entitled to personal beliefs, and has the right to make choices about health care. Many variables influence how life is experienced. Some of these variables include race, age, gender, religion, environment, genetic heritage, culture, and socioeconomic status. In addition the person is in a constant state of interaction with the internal and external forces that surround them. Stressors in these environments may enhance or diminish the person’s health depending on the current state of the person’s defenses.

Health is a dynamic balance towards which the person continually strives. It is viewed within the person’s physical, psychological, sociocultural, developmental and spiritual parameters. The person’s health is determined by the ability to adapt to changes in the environment and maintain dynamic equilibrium. Health is a fundamental right of each person who assumes responsibility for maintenance of health through choices. Health care resources are used by the person to achieve integrated function.

The nursing profession has evolved as an art and science over time. The primary aim of nursing is the stability of the person system. The essence of nursing is caring for and nurturing the person. As a profession, nursing is concerned with the internal and external variables that affect human responses to stressors. They base their practice on ethical and legal frameworks that guide relationships established with recipients of care and on their awareness of nursing’s place in the global health system. As critical thinkers, nurses assess situations, define problems, identify goals and evaluate care provided by self and other. Mastery of communication skills and the ability to think critically are basic to professional nursing practice.

Graduates of the baccalaureate program are prepared as beginning practitioners of nursing who can integrate principles from the physical, behavioral and social sciences into their practice. These nurses are able to function interdependently within an established system, to recognize areas where change is needed, to initiate action to affect change, and to act in a collaborative role with other health care providers and consumers. Graduates of the master's program are prepared as advanced practitioners of nursing, with specialized practice within communities. These graduates are prepared to function in leadership roles in a variety of health care settings, to contribute to the development of nursing knowledge and to advance the profession.

---

Department of Nursing and Allied Health Professions Nursing School Location

Department of Nursing and Allied Health Professions Courses

DISASTER AWARENESS
Provides a basic understanding of the essentials of disaster planning, responding to mass casualty incidents, and postdisaster restoration of basic public health. Introduces a basic overview of health issues caused by biological, chemical, explosive, and natural disasters.

HEALTHY PEOPLE
Advances knowledge of health promotion and illness prevention concepts and examines health disparities across segments of the population. The determinants of health, health status assessment, and the nation’s leading health indicators will be emphasized. Students will be guided in the development of a personal wellness program.

FOUNDATIONS OF CHILD HEALTH
Focuses on conditions that affect the health of children. Provides an overview of the structure and function of selected body systems. Emphasizes the development of each system during infancy and childhood. The impact of common acute and chronic diseases on children is incorporated. Health promotion concepts are addressed.

NURSING PRACTICE I
The first of two clinical courses that present the concepts and abilities fundamental to the practice of professional nursing and provide a foundation on which students can build their professional knowledge base as well as their interpersonal and psychomotor skills. Clinical assignments in a variety of settings provide opportunities for students to develop basic clinical practice skills.

PROFESSIONAL NURSING I
Introduces the discipline of nursing and values that are fundamental to practice. Caring as a concept central to the practice of professional nursing provides the framework for examining the values of the profession. Human diversity and the effects that culture, socioeconomics, ethnicity, and religion have on health status and response to health care are studied. An overview of the healthcare system in the United States and an examination of access issues. As a foundation for client contact in subsequent courses, students learn therapeutic communication skills and theory related to teaching and learning. Service/learning and team-building experiences are an integral component.

NURSING PRACTICE II
Builds on Nursing Practice I and provides opportunities to continue to build professional knowledge and skills with diverse individuals and families in a variety of settings. Emphasizes developing ability to perform health assessments, using therapeutic communication, and executing basic nursing skills while promoting healthy behaviors.

HEALTH ASSESSMENT
Introduces basic health assessment, which is a systematic method of data collection, organization, and validation for the purpose of determining a client’s health status. Involves assessment of clients across the life span. Emphasizes assessment of client needs that affect the total person, which is consistent with nursing’s holistic approach to client care. Methods of data collection used for health assessments include observing, interviewing, and examination. Students learn to apply these methods effectively in order to gather accurate and complete assessments.

FOUNDATIONS OF NURSING
Introduces fundamental nursing concepts that apply to the practice of professional nursing with individuals. Topics include nursing theories related to professional practice, elements of holistic care, promotion of psychosocial and physiologic health, and application of pharmacology in nursing practice.

SPECIAL TOPICS
Offered on an experimental or temporary basis to explore topics not included in the established curriculum. A given topic may be offered under any special topic identity no more than three times. Special topics numbered 281 are offered primarily for lower-level undergraduate students.

PROBLEM SOLVING IN NURSING
Provides opportunities to recognize and develop intervention strategies for problem solving in clinical nursing situations. Emphasizes developing application and analysis skills required for success in the nursing program.

PROFESSIONAL NURSING II
Provides a working knowledge of the values, code of ethics, ethical principles, professional standards, and legal framework that govern clinical decisions, determine professional conduct, and guide interactions with clients, families, colleagues, and other health care providers. Students formulate an ethical decision-making framework that, by incorporating personal values, professional values, moral concepts, and legal mandates, serves as a guide to professional practice. Using a problem-based approach, they study legal and ethical frameworks that guide professional practice and relate/apply these to actual clinical situations.

RESEARCH UTILIZATION IN NURSING
Focuses on understanding and critiquing nursing research. Emphasizes understanding the research process and applying research findings to practice. Students describe the various stages of the research process and apply these steps to evaluate clinical nursing research problems. Focuses on developing the necessary skills to engage in scholarly research writing.

TRANSITIONS IN PROFESSIONAL NURSING
Explores the dynamic nature of health and its impact on the practice of nursing. Nursing theories, concepts, and issues related to nursing practice are analyzed. Linkages among theory, research, and practice are explored for relevance and utility. (Writing-intensive course)

ADULT HEALTH I
Introduces disease processes and treatment regimens and examines their impact on adults throughout their life span. Emphasizes increasing student knowledge about assessing human responses to changes in health, determining appropriate nursing interventions, and identifying the physiological and psychosocial basis for nursing actions.

ADULT HEALTH CLINICAL I
Provides opportunities to apply the nursing process with adults and aging families in a variety of settings. Emphasizes increasing the ability to perform comprehensive health assessments and to use assessment data to identify problems, intervene, and evaluate care. Students learn to function as members of the health care team, identify discharge-planning needs, and differentiate between collaborative and independent nursing activities. Service learning is a component of the course.

MATERNAL-CHILD HEALTH
Focuses on knowledge essential to provide nursing care for pregnant women and their children within a family context. The first half of the course emphasizes the changes experienced by the woman and family during normal and complicated pregnancy as well as those of the developing fetus and neonate. The second half focuses on acute and chronic health problems of infants, children, and adolescents.

MATERNAL-CHILD HEALTH CLINICAL
Provides clinical learning experiences designed to enable students to provide nursing care for primary prevention/intervention with child-bearing families and with children and secondary prevention with women, children, and their families. These experiences are planned in a variety of ambulatory, community, and acute-care settings to enable the student to develop core values, knowledge, competencies, and skills associated with nursing care of mothers, children, and their families.

SKILLS FOR PROFESSIONAL SUCCESS
A 1cr elective for senior nursing majors designed to help foster clinical judgment skills by focusing on critical thinking and test-taking. Emphasizes preparing students with the skills that are essential for success on the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN).

ADVANCED HEALTH ASSESSMENT
This clinical course builds upon the basic assessment techniques of the registered nurse. Provides the student with the ability to assess the health status of adults. Enables the student to collect a comprehensive health history and perform complete physical examination on adults from various backgrounds. Focuses on examination techniques and identification of deviations from normal.

PROFESSIONAL NURSING III
The professional nurse is expected to use clinical, managerial, and personal leadership skills to ensure the delivery of high-quality, cost-effective care in divergent health care delivery systems. The study of leadership and management skills and processes are approached as inherent elements for all levels of nursing practice. The role of designer/manager/coordinator of care in professional nursing is examined in depth.

PSYCHIATRIC/MENTAL HEALTH
Focuses on the principles and concepts that guide nursing practice in a variety of psychiatric/mental health settings. The role of the nurse in primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention/intervention is addressed as it relates to individuals, families, and aggregates.

COMMUNITY HEALTH
Focuses on nursing care that is population and community oriented. Emphasizes the community as a client, perspectives and influences of the health care delivery systems, theoretical frameworks applicable to community health, contemporary issues in community health nursing, and nursing roles as designers, managers, and coordinators of care in the community.

COMMUNITY AND PSYCHIATRIC/MENTAL HEALTH CLINICAL
Focuses on community-based and community health nursing experiences to enable students to provide health promotion, risk reduction, and disease prevention in a wide variety of community settings and with diverse populations. Students will also have experiences within acute and community-based psychiatric care facilities, working as members of a multidisciplinary team to provide primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention/intervention. Emphases are also on nursing management and development of nursing strategies to assist at-risk families, aggregates, and groups, while considering health care on a continuum throughout the life span. Opportunities for individual mentoring in a clinical area are an integral part of the course.

ADULT HEALTH II
Builds on Adult Health I, focusing on the adult/family coping with complex health problems. The relationships among disease states, treatment, and associated nursing responsibilities are emphasized as students build their knowledge base of pharmacology, therapeutic procedures, rehabilitation needs, and teaching-learning strategies. Principles underlying the use of technology in clinical practice provide a basis for the concurrent clinical course.

ADULT HEALTH CLINICAL II
Provides opportunities for clinical practice as a provider of care for complex, acutely ill clients in a variety of settings including intensive care unit, monitored units, medical-surgical units, and rehabilitation settings. Focuses on secondary prevention/intervention for long-term critically ill patients. Emphasizes the role of designer/manager/coordinator of care with opportunities to apply management principles and practice leadership skills in the acute care and rehabilitation setting. Opportunities to receive preceptoring with a Registered Nurse are an integral component.

A COGNITIVE APPROACH TO CLINICAL PROBLEM SOLVING
Focuses on advanced clinical problem-solving and decision-making skills needed by professional nurses. Factors that influence clinical problem solving are examined to facilitate higher-level thinking in simulated clinical situations.

HEALTH PROMOTION OF FAMILIES ACROSS THE LIFESPAN
The first part focuses on the underlying theories and frameworks for family structure, function, and assessment. The second part focuses on application and evaluation of families in the context of health promotion. The family is studied across the life span. Emphasizes family assessment and cultural diversity and the stressors that impact families during the various stages of life. Required to conduct a family assessment in the community.

INTRODUCTION TO NURSING INFORMATICS
An introduction and overview in the application of the disciplines of nursing science, computer science, and information science in collecting, processing, and managing information to promote decision making in nursing.

LEADERSHIP PRACTICUM
Focuses on role development in management and leadership for the Registered Nurse. Planned individualized experiences will afford opportunities to apply management and leadership theories in a workplace setting. Faculty members will guide the student in theory-based practice and synthesis of theory to practice experiences.

COMMUNITY HEALTH PRACTICUM
Allows the Registered Nurse to apply knowledge to the practice of community-based and community health nursing. Emphasizes health promotion, risk reduction, and disease prevention in a wide variety of community settings and with diverse populations.

SEMINAR IN NURSING
A seminar which provides a forum for the exploration and discussion of issues relevant to the professional nurse. Emphasizes the development of professional values, critical thinking, decision-making, and communication skills. A selection of topics on current issues and trends is offered; each focuses on a particular theme related to nursing practice.

SPECIAL TOPICS
Offered on an experimental or temporary basis to explore topics not included in the established curriculum. A given topic may be offered under any special topic identity no more than three times. Special topics numbered 481 are primarily for upper-level undergraduate students.

INDEPENDENT STUDY
Students with interest in independent study of a topic not offered in the curriculum may propose a plan of study in conjunction with a faculty member. Approval is based on academic appropriateness and availability of resources.

INTERNSHIP
A supervised experience in a practice setting which extends and complements coursework in nursing. The types of practice settings may include acute care hospitals, outpatient health centers, and community agencies.

Other nursing schools in Pennsylvania

Mansfield University (Robert Packer Department of Health Sciences) Mansfield University’s Robert Packer Department of Health Sciences and Physical Activities offers a nursing program, accredited by The National League... Address: 212C Elliott Hall

Neumann College (Division of Nursing and Health Sciences) Franciscan values and tradition infuse the strong liberal arts and professional education which is basic in developing the professional nurse within c... Address: One Neumann Drive

Saint Francis University (Nursing Department ) Welcome to the Department of Nursing. If you are thinking about a career in nursing, now is a great time to enter the profession. There are new and ... Address: 103 Schwab Hall, Loretto, P.O. Box 600

Back to: » Nursing schools in Pennsylvania » Nursing schools in Indiana

More information: » Marinas » Boats for sale