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 contemporary society. Nursing is seen as a professional service performed for members of the human family who reflect the image of their Creator.

The Nursing curriculum prepares professional nurses who will be able to:

- Anticipate and respond to change that affects continuing and new health needs of individuals, groups, and communities.

- Provide nursing care to people of all ages and diverse cultures in varying circumstances and settings.

As unique health care providers, nurses are expected to define and evaluate their autonomous role and its impact on both the client and the health care delivery system. Advocacy for the development and delivery of health care services of the highest quality requires that these nurses collaborate with others who are engaged in health care in order to enhance the well-being of evolving local and world cultures.

It is intended that graduates with a major in Nursing will have a sound educational basis for beginning professional practice, for continuing development, for graduate study in nursing, and for accepting professional and civic responsibilities.

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Division of Nursing and Health Sciences Nursing School Location

Division of Nursing and Health Sciences Courses

FUNDAMENTALS OF PROFESSIONAL NURSING
A prerequisite to acceptance into the Nursing major, introduces nursing as a profession, an art, a science, and a career. This required pre-major course assists students, who intend to make formal application to the Nursing major, to be informed about their decision to pursue baccalaureate nursing and the required criteria for acceptance into the major. Course design enables students to begin the process of conceptualizing clients, their environment, their health, and nursing practice within the Neuman Systems Model. Content areas, such as the history of nursing, philosophical, legal, and ethical bases for nursing practice, as well as theoretical propositions developed through research that guide the nursing practice, are some of the topics which are studied.

HEALTH ASSESSMENT + MODALITIES
This course continues the process of conceptualizing clients, their environment, their health, and nursing practice within an adaptation of the Neuman Systems Model which provides the structure for integration and application of the nursing process. Throughout the course, students develop the psychomotor, cognitive, and affective skills that are needed in eliciting a health history, conducting a physical assessment, providing basic nursing care, and administering medications. Students apply their classroom learning in required laboratory experiences.

ADULT HEALTHI
This course builds upon scientific nursing knowledge of adult health concepts first introduced in Health Assessment + Modalities. Using the Neuman Systems Model, students are provided with learning opportunities that integrate a holistic value system into nursing practice. This total person approach guides nursing practice in the care of the adult client who requires primary, secondary, and/or tertiary levels of prevention. Through a study of selected stressors that cause acute or chronic illness, the student learns to apply the nursing process in the delivery of care to adult and older adult clients who experience problems related to pain, sensory deficits, movement, as well as common cardiovascular, pulmonary, and regulatory mechanisms. These areas of study are reinforced through required laboratory and clinical experiences.

ADULT HEALTH II
In this course, students continue to develop their scientific nursing knowledge of adult health concepts. Using the Neuman Systems Model, students utilize the nursing process in the delivery of care to clients with neurological, gastrointestinal, urological, hematologic, immunologic, and cancer conditions. Selected stressors causing chronic illness continue to be studied. Primary and secondary preventions are further developed, analyzed, and applied. Professional nursing and collaborative skills are enhanced through interaction with other health care providers involved in assisting the client toward reconstitution. These areas of study are reinforced through required laboratory and clinical experiences.

WOMEN’S HEALTH ANDWELLNESS IN THE 3 CREDITS CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY
Students explore and consider the health care needs of women throughout the life span and in various roles during the latter part of the 20th century. An analysis of current trends, practice, and research in women’s health needs, health care availability, and the methods of helping oneself and others are studied. Emphasis is placed upon attitudes, approaches, and resources that might be helpful to women in maintaining and/or achieving a satisfactory level of health. Open to all students.

NURSING AND SPIRITUALITY
The universal truth embodied in the spiritual dimension of human nature is the focal point of this course. Students are encouraged to differentiate spiritual from religious practices, as well as develop and examine an awareness of their personal spiritual dimension. All students are asked to reflect on spiritual development as it relates to the eight stages of man (Erikson), focus on the cultural aspects of spirituality, and correlate religious beliefs and legal issues. The student uses the nursing process as it relates to the dying child, the client with AIDS, the dying adult, and the grieving family. Case histories in nursing which focus on the spiritual needs of the client are discussed as each student discovers the gift which he/she brings to nurse-client relationships when spiritual needs are met.
TRANSCULTURAL NURSING
This course integrates anthropological theories, concepts, and methods with professional nursing. The impact of cultural systems on clients’ perception of health, illness, and care are studied. Consideration is given to the affect of culture upon nursing education and research.

HOME HEALTH CARE OF THE CHRONICALLY ILL CLIENT
This course offers a theoretical basis for the beginning practitioner to care for a client with multi-system failure. Students are assisted in the application of cognitive skills that enable him/her to use appropriate judgment in the establishment of priorities of care, the rapid formation of valid decisions, and the accurate evaluation of client outcomes. Students also have the opportunity to apply theory to practice by working with clinical specialists in a home health care setting of their choosing. Open to Senior-level Nursing majors only.

DYING AND DEATH: PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL SHARING
The goal of this course is not only to sensitize the learner to the spectrum of death issues but also to stimulate curiosity and new inquiries into dying and death experiences. What sense can be made of all the death information with which we are confronted every day? What parallel can be established between death and all other forms of social ending? To stimulate such thinking, each topic deals with relevant issues as points for extended discussion.

CONCEPTS OF CHILD AND ADULTMENTAL HEALTH NURSING
This course builds upon scientific knowledge of mental health concepts that are first introduced to students in their sophomore level of study. Using the Neuman Systems Model, the goal of this course is to provide opportunities for the student to integrate holistic nursing care of the child, adolescent, adult, and older adult who require primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of prevention. Selected stressors that cause acute or chronic illness are studied, thus giving the student the opportunity to apply the nursing process in collaboration with the interdisciplinary mental health team. By reviewing research and clinical literature, students develop a foundation for the practice and evaluation of nursing care. Students are also challenged to reflect on their own behaviors and methods of communication as they relate to the nurse-client relationship. Provision is made for observation, assessment, and intervention experiences in a variety of hospital and community settings with clients of all ages. Theoretical concepts and psychiatric/mental health nursing skills are reinforced through required laboratory and clinical experiences.

PATHOPHARMACOLOGYI
Students are taught to identify homeodynamic alterations of illness and its effect on clinical practice. An introduction to the pathophysiologic mechanisms of disease with a focus on client outcomes is presented. The fundamental pathophysiological concepts of cell injury, inflammation, fever, healing, and immunity are integrated within the systems approach to illness. Biochemical processes leading to the alteration of body structure and function are analyzed; and select health interventions are reviewed.

PATHOPHARMACOLOGY II
The integration of pharmacologic concepts into clinical practice constitutes the primary focus of this course. Essential concepts of pharmacology and pharmacodynamics are reviewed for the various classes of therapeutic agents. The biochemical and physiological mechanism of drugs are correlated and related to the physiological and biochemical mechanisms of homeostasis. This course also examines the major classes of drugs that the health care provider is likely to encounter in clinical practice. Mechanisms of drug action and the rationale of a particular drug’s usage in various disease states are presented for each class of pharmacologic agent. The toxicologic aspects of each drug are discussed, together with interactions among various types of drugs.

NURSING CARE OF THE CHILDBEARING FAMILY
Scientific nursing knowledge is applied in the care of the childbearing woman and her family. The primary role of the nurse is to assist the client system to maintain intact lines of defense, thus avoiding illness. Selected stressors encountered during the childbearing period have the potential for decreasing health and causing illness. Throughout the course, students are assisted in developing the skills which are necessary for assessing the woman, the fetus and neonate, and the family system. Assessment experiences are provided in a variety of clinical and community agencies with a focus on the childbearing family. Students identify client needs that require primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of prevention. Legal and ethical guidelines as well as the changing role of the professional nurse within the context of primary to tertiary levels of care are examined. These areas of study are reinforced through required laboratory and clinical experiences.

NURSING RESEARCH
Fundamentals of nursing research, including a survey of the different research designs and their applications, are introduced. Concepts of critical appraisal and outcomes research are also presented. In this course, the nursing student gains basic research skills and the ability to read and analyze research critically as well as understand the application of research to the nursing process. Additionally, students identify and analyze strengths and weaknesses of published nursing research.

RN TRANSITION
This course builds upon the student’s basic nursing knowledge and experience as a preparation to begin studies leading to the Bachelor of Science degree. The course assumes that the individual is an adult learner who is able to identify his/her own learning needs and objectives and function at a high level of motivation and independence. The focal points of the course consist of: the structure and history of nursing knowledge; conceptual models of nursing, with an emphasis on the Neuman Systems Model; application of critical thinking in professional practice; policies that affect the nurse within health care; and transitional topics which are essential to the baccalaureate Nursing student within the health care system, including leadership style, personal values, and individual philosophy of nursing.

ADULT HEALTH III
Students apply their scientific nursing knowledge gained through sophomore and junior level coursework and continue the use of the Neuman Systems Model in the delivery of care to critically ill clients with burns and/or complex respiratory, cardiovascular, renal, neurologic, and endocrine disorders. Implications for contemporary leadership in nursing are drawn through a re-examination and evaluation of the nurse’s interpersonal factors upon the nurse-client relationship and client outcomes of comprehensive care. Within the context of this course, a research approach in nursing and the necessity for theory-based practice is delineated. These areas of study are reinforced through required laboratory and clinical experiences.

THE NURSE AS A PROFESSIONAL
This course focuses on the socialization of the nurse into the profession. Course content emphasizes nursing’s impact in the health care system, the nurse’s professional role, legal and ethical responsibilities, and an analysis of selected contemporary issues in professional nursing. The beginning practitioner of nursing is provided, through this course, with a conceptual base and language required to interpret the literature on professional roles and responsibilities intelligently. The course also equips the student with basic strategies for utilizing specialized nursing knowledge and provides a basis for responsible decision-making related to ethical and legal issues.

NURSING OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
This senior level course builds upon the experiential base gained in previous Nursing courses with a primary emphasis on client systems experiencing the stress of illness, as explicated by the Neuman Systems Model. Students apply the nursing process with clients of infancy-adolescence who are coping with reactions and responses to stressors which are encountered in growth and development within a family context. Nursing at the primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention levels continues to be emphasized. The collaborative and coordinating roles of the professional nurse are further analyzed for effectiveness. Legal and ethical guidelines underlying selected modalities of secondary prevention are also examined. The applicability of research to practice and findings are utilized to determine and evaluate options for nursing care. Students apply their classroom learning throughout the semester in required laboratory experiences. These areas of study are reinforced through required laboratory and clinical experiences.

COMMUNITY AND PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING
This course uses the Neuman Systems Model to conceptualize and apply the nursing process in the delivery of primary, secondary, and tertiary health services with individuals, families, and aggregates in community settings. Course content focuses on the concepts of community and public health nursing, public health science, and the roles, responsibilities, and practice settings of community health nurses. Students examine the economic, sociocultural, and ethical influences on community health nursing. Opportunities are also provided to evaluate various populationbased approaches to practice, including community assessment, case management, and nursing centers. Research is critiqued for applicability to nursing theory and practice in community health settings. These areas of study are reinforced through required laboratory and clinical experiences.

LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, 2 CREDITS AND ADMINISTRATION IN NURSING
This theory-based nursing course is designed to provide a strong theoretical base in leadership, management, and administration of client care. The course prepares baccalaureate educated nurses to assume leadership and decision-making roles in diverse health care delivery settings, which are representative of both traditional and expanding health care environments.

INDEPENDENT STUDY PROJECT (ISP)
Qualified students who seek individualized advanced study in some area of Nursing that is not covered in scheduled courses may apply for an Independent Study Project (ISP). Students assume responsibility for special readings and research under the supervision of a designated faculty member. Any particular prerequisites for an ISP in Nursing are determined by the Division Dean. Regular meetings with faculty and completion of all assignments are required.

NURSING SYNTHESIS
This final clinical course in the undergraduate program is designed to prepare the student to enter the workplace as a baccalaureate prepared nurse. Building upon individual learning and professional objectives, students work directly with clinical preceptors under the mentorship of faculty to refine nursing skills in their selected patient care area(s). Weekly seminars are used to explore patient care, legal/ethical issues, and the health care system. Clinical placements reflect all prevention levels.

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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

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