Rockford College

Considering a career in nursing? The Department of Nursing offers the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree.

Our BSN program offers two tracks that provide educational opportunities for individuals who are seeking a career in nursing or are registered nurses endeavoring to increase their knowledge, expertise, and earning capabilities. The various tracks in the BSN program prepare practitioners that are capable of decision making in the care of individuals, families, groups and communities. Our BSN graduates are prepared and successfully obtain employment in structured and unstructured settings such as acute care facilities, community and public health, and leadership roles in health care.

Our Departmental Mission, which supports the College Mission, is to provide excellence in education through integration of liberal arts learning and professional education that prepare professional nurses to provide quality nursing care to individuals, families, groups and communities with diverse health needs. Students get hands-on experience in a top-rated health care community facilitated by outstanding nursing faculties, which facilitate achievement of graduate competencies. Students are provided opportunity to develop skills as leaders who will be successful in transforming the health and well-being of our communities.

Leadership and governance opportunities for students are available for those who wish to serve as representatives to the college or in the Nursing Student Organization (NSO).

THE NURSING DEPARTMENT MISSION

The Department of Nursing provides excellence in education through integration of liberal arts learning and professional education that prepare professional nurses to provide quality nursing care to individuals, families, groups and communities with diverse health needs.

PHILOSOPHY OF NURSING

We, the nursing faculty of the Department of Nursing, participate in the mission of Rockford College. Education for professional nursing is achieved through a curriculum that unifies the essential phenomena of interest in nursing: the concepts of nursing, health, person and environment.

We believe that nursing is an art and a science concerned with the promotion, maintenance, and restoration of optimal health. Clients of nursing are individuals, families, groups, or communities with health-related concerns. We believe that nursing is a complex interaction with clients requiring flexibility, creativity, expert communication, critical thinking, and competence in therapeutic interventions. We embrace the skills, values, ethics and standards of practice espoused by the nursing profession. We believe that competent nursing practice occurs when professional nurses demonstrate the values and ethics of the profession in their roles as caregiver, communicator, critical thinker, diagnostician, leader, manager, and teacher. We believe that nursing exists to serve society and that nursing and society share accountability and responsibility for providing quality health care to all. We believe that nursing best serves the public when nurses are politically active and practice collaboratively in a variety of roles with clients and other health care providers.

We believe that health is a resource for living that changes over time in response to influences such as personal biology, lifestyle, the environment, and the health care system. Health is defined in various ways by laypersons and health care providers. A broad knowledge of health gives the nurse flexibility when assisting others with health issues and concerns.

We believe that each person is a unique, complex, and holistic being with biophysical, psychological, spiritual, and socio-cultural dimensions. People develop behavioral patterns to meet their needs and wants. These behavioral patterns may enhance or diminish health. People have freedom of choice and are accountable for their health care decisions but many clients need help in navigating the health care system. We recognize that personal decision-making about health is complex and dependent on many variables within and surrounding the individual person. We value the inherent worth and dignity of each person and believe that excellent nursing requires a working partnership with clients.

We believe that the environment is everything that surrounds a person including all conditions circumstances and resources. Society is a dimension of the environment that strongly influences the health resources of its people. Professional nursing is a health resource and takes place within the context of society. People interact with their environments and are strongly influenced by variables that promote and/or undermine health. We believe that an increasingly important aspect of nursing practice is the examination of the relationship between the environment and client health. Nurses then intervene to empower clients to either adapt to or change their environment. Nurses also partner with others in society to create a more healthful environment for all.

We believe that education at its best is an interactive process by which students and teachers teach and learn from each other in an atmosphere of mutual respect and caring. We believe that both the process and content of our educational program are critically important for students to acquire the knowledge, skills, values, and competencies necessary for quality nursing practice. Accepting responsibility for nurturing ones own learning and for helping others learn is essential for the life-long personal growth and professional development of teachers and students.

The organizing framework for the Rockford College Department of Nursing depicts a curriculum centered on educating graduate professional nurses with knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes necessary for competent, ethical nursing practice. The focus of the curriculum is to develop the seven competencies of caregiver, critical thinker, communicator, diagnostician, leader, manager, and teacher in each unique graduate. Graduates learn to enact these competencies by integrating the four phenomena of interest to nursing i.e., the concepts of environment, health, nursing and person. The scope of nursing practice is broad in relation to these phenomena. Nurses care for individuals, families, groups, and populations to promote, maintain, and restore health. Concern for the environment extends from the home to the world. Students begin as novices and graduate as advanced beginners with the potential to become nurse experts. Our graduates develop the flexibility and creativity needed to adapt their expression of the seven competencies to the context of care. This adaptation is illustrated by the motif of the nurse as a pinwheel responding to movement within the context of care. The context of care always involves nurses concerned about the health of persons within an environment. Rockford College with its unique mission and vision as a liberal arts institution provides a rich learning environment to students within the Department of Nursing.

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Rockford College Nursing School Location

Rockford College Courses

HOLISTIC HEALTH FOR CONTEMPORARY ADULTS
This course focuses not only gender physiological differences and specifics, but the most important of the current issues related to people as consumers and participants in a health aware society. Consideration is given equally to issues related to men's health, women's health and those concerns that are held in common. Examination of current popular journalism with an eye for becoming able to discriminate between fad, fiction, and reality in health related areas is part of the class.

CONTEMPORARY NUTRITION
Want to look good, be more energetic, prevent disease, and maybe get better grades? Boost your nutrition savvy by exploring contemporary issues and controversies in nutrition - an applied science. This course will be taught from an interdisciplinary perspective and provide depth of scientific knowledge and practical skills for eating healthy for a lifetime. Scope of course extends from personal to global nutrition and includes a community-based learning component.

SPECIAL TOPICS IN NURSING
FUNDAMENTALS OF CONTEMP NURSING PRACTICE
The concepts of health, nursing, environment, and persons are examined from historical, philosophical, and current perspectives. The course introduces students to the nursing process and critical thinking, communication, and therapeutic nursing interventions. Basic skills of the nurse as caregiver and communicator are applied in this course. The primary focus is the adult. Emphasis is placed on the application of the nursing process in case studies and patient care situations. Introduction of basic skills is presented within the parameters of the classroom, nursing skills laboratory, and clinical experiences.

HEALTH ASSESSMENT
Provides an overview of health assessment techniques and recording. Develops knowledge and skills in history-taking and physical assessment of clients throughout the life span, with emphasis on the adult. Identification of findings within the normal range is emphasized and the significance of abnormal findings is explored. Opportunities for practice are provided.

ADULT HEALTH NURSING I
Theory and practice associated with the nursing care of adults is the focus of this course. The nursing process is used for the promotion, maintenance, and restoration of health. Selected strategies such as health education and problem solving are explored. Clinical experiences focus on application of knowledge, attitudes, and skills with adult clients experiencing impaired health.

FAMILY HEALTH NURSING
Family theory is presented within the framework of the nursing process. Knowledge, attitudes, and skills are developed to provide nursing care to families. Health maintenance and promotion are emphasized in clinical experiences with childbearing families.

CHILD HEALTH NURSING
Child Health theory is presented within the framework of the nursing process. Knowledge, attitudes, and skills are developed to provide nursing care to children and their families. Health maintenance and promotion are emphasized in clinical experiences with families with children.

MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
Mental health theories and practices associated with the nursing care of psychiatric clients are the focus of this course. The nursing process is used as a framework for strategies designed to promote improved mental health for those exhibiting psychiatric pathology. Various clinical settings provide an opportunity for the application of nursing knowledge and skills across all developmental life stages.

NURSING RESEARCH
Introduction to research methodologies with focus on the research process. Concepts include history of research in nursing, scientific inquiry, research ethics, communication of research findings, and the nurses role in research.

PATHOPHARMACOLOGY I
This course is part I of a two-part sequence that addresses pathophysiologic and pharmacologic concepts basic to nursing practice. Pathophysiologic concepts discussed are essential for understanding major health problems that occur across the life span. Emphasis is on understanding how and why various pathophysiologic changes occur and the related pharmacologic modes of treatment.

PATHOPHARMACOLOGY II
This course is part II of a two-part sequence that addresses pathophysiological and pharmacologic concepts basic to nursing practice. Pathophysiological concepts essential for understanding major health problems that occur across the life span are discussed. Emphasis is on understanding how and why various pathophysiological changes occur across the life span and the related pharmacologic modes of treatment.

TRANSITIONS IN NURSING
This course assists students with ADN/Diploma preparation to make the transition to baccalaureate education in practice. Course content includes: the RN to BSN student experience, review of articulation documents, the current status of the nursing profession, and contemporary professional practice. Prior student learning and practice is valued and used as a foundation for future personal and professional career development.

INDEPENDENT STUDY IN NURSING

OLDER ADULT HEALTH NURSING
Issues related to the nursing care of older adults are a major factor in the evolving health care system throughout the world in the twenty-first century. This course focuses on factors influencing the normal health and functional ability of older adults. Problems prevalent in this population are discussed with emphasis placed on ways to manage their complex, multi-system health care problems for continuity and safety. Content also includes legal, ethical, economic, social, and political issues impacting older adults.

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