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2024-25 Catalog
UNDERGRADUATE CATALOG
Nursing, BSN
The NVU Nursing program focuses on training and educating healthcare professionals in the field of nursing. NVU Nursing offers a comprehensive curriculum covering a variety of disciplines and approaches within the healthcare field. Students in NVU Nursing receive rigorous and hands-on education that prepares them to meet the challenges and demands of today’s healthcare environment.
The primary goal of NVU Nursing is to develop competent and empathetic nurses who are prepared to deliver high-quality care to patients in a variety of clinical settings. Through theoretical coursework and practical experiences, NVU Nursing students acquire clinical and communication skills that are fundamental to success in the nursing profession.
NVU Nursing is committed to fostering a collaborative learning environment where students can grow academically and personally. Faculty and staff at NVU Nursing are dedicated to supporting the success of each student and promoting a culture of excellence and care in nursing practice.
Upon graduating from NVU Nursing, students are prepared to face the challenges and opportunities that await them in the nursing field. Whether they choose to work in hospitals, medical offices, long-term care facilities, or in the community, NVU Nursing graduates are equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to make a meaningful difference in the lives of patients and their families.
UNDERGRADUATE CATALOG
Non-Nursing Major Requirements
Writing Requirement
Select a Writing Intensive Course
1
Language Requirement
Satisfy by exemption or if language proficiency completed in fewer than 2 semesters, use remaining course units as free electives
2
Distribution by Sectors
The Planet & Our Climate
1
Societies, Histories, and Traditions
1
Global Arts, Letters, & Cultures
1
Diversity, Universality, Justice, & Equity
1
Exploration Course Requirement (1cu) - a course in any School within the University other than the School of Nursing, at any level for which the student is eligible and in any discipline
1
Nursing Major Courses
Nursing Foundational Courses
NNP 1011
The Nature of Nursing Practice
This course facilitates students' ability to conceptualize the experiences of individuals, families, communities, and populations living with health and illness. It emphasizes the integration of knowledge from other disciplines and of nursing science as the basis for practice. The course introduces the four core themes of the undergraduate nursing program: engagement, inquiry, judgment, and voice and examines how the themes are used to characterize the nature of nursing practice.
Fall
.5 Course Units
The Nature of Nursing Practice
0.5
SPN 1022
Situating the Practice of Nursing
This course emphasizes not only how nursing is practiced, but also where it is practiced. The course further explores the four core themes of engagement, inquiry, judgment, and voice as it provides guided observational experiences in a wide variety of settings. These experiences help the student to discover what is not known and what is subsequently necessary to know. These experiences also explore the place of the natural and social sciences and the arts and humanities in nursing practice. This course also will highlight the relationships between and among members of the interprofessional team and families and patients. NURS 102 fosters development of the professional role and sets the stage for life-long learning.
Spring
.5 Course Units
Situating the Practice of Nursing
0.5
PSH 1033
Psychological and Social Diversity in Health and Wellness
This course explores and integrates the intersection of psychological, cognitive, and social development with the lived experiences of individuals, families, and communities across the lifespan in order to conduct socially contextualized health assessments and health teaching. Extant theories will be critically analyzed and examined with respect to issues of health care access, health history, health promotion, and issues of equity and diversity from a life-course perspective. This knowledge will be synthesized and integrated with the development of the student's communication skills and interviewing processes necessary to develop socially attuned health history and teaching that promote psychological well being and healthy lifestyles. Simulated and observational experiences provide students with opportunities to acquire and apply knowledge necessary for conducting a comprehensive health history of an individual situated within a diverse community. They also provide opportunities to develop prioritized health teaching plans in partnership with that individual.
Fall
1 Course Unit
Psychological and Social Diversity in Health and Wellness
1
Nursing Clinical Courses
NWI 2151
Nursing of Women and Infants
This course emphasizes the child-bearing cycle, and the related issues of maternal and infant mortality and morbidity. It also explores women and infant's health care and health promotion needs across the lifespan. It provides a global perspective, and uses the United Nations' Pillars of Safe Motherhood and World Health Organization's Millennium Development Goals as the vehicles to enable students to understand the interrelationships among issues of health and health promotion; social, economic, political and environmental contexts; and the care of women across the lifespan. Clinical experiences provide opportunities for students to understand the connections between the local and the global; to use their developing knowledge base to affect the health of women and their infants. Students will have opportunities for hospital-based care of child-bearing women and their infants. In addition, community-based experiences with individual women and with groups of women across the life cycle will be provided in order to enhance teaching, interviewing and assessment skills.
Spring
1.5 Course Unit
Nursing of Women and Infants
1.5
NP 2251
Pediatric Nursing
This course considers how nursing influences the health and healing capacities of infants, children, adolescents and their families. It focuses on the knowledge and skill acquisition needed to care for these patients at particular moments, across the continuum of care, and through transitions in an illness experience. It addresses pediatric nursing phenomena of concern and major final common pathways of pediatric illness from infancy through adolescence using a using a developmental and systems approach. Emphasis is placed on family-centered care through transitions in the illness and recovery phases. The course emphasizes clinical reasoning; family centered strategies for optimizing health and maintaining individuality; promoting optimal developmental, physiological, and psychological functioning; and enhancing strengths within the context of family. Clinical experiences at various children's hospitals and simulation experiences provide sufficient opportunities for clinical reasoning, clinical care and knowledge integration. Additional Prerequisite: Clinical 12 hours weekly and 2 hours Simulated Laboratory Weekly
Fall or Spring
1.5 Course Unit
Pediatric Nursing
1.5
NBM 2352
Psychiatric, Behavioral, and Mental Health Nursing
This course examines the influences of psychological, emtional, cognitive and social development of individuals and groups across the lifespan. Students combine this foundational knowledge with their developing understanding of social determinants of health. This course will help students learn to identify and assess individual, family and group level needs for those persons at risk for or experiencing behavioral or psychiatric/mental health challenges using evidence-based interventions applicable across the continuum of care. Emphasis is placed on the role of the professional nurse in assuring the delivery of equitable behavioral and pychiatric/mental health nursing care. The course addresses nursing phenomena of concern related the meanings of a behavioral or mental mental health illness and the development of healing relationships with individuals, families, and groups. In addition, the student will learn essential advanced communication strategies, including exposure to skills necessary for motivational interviewing, essential to engage individual and families in mental health promotion and treatment. This course provides the tools to enable students to construct effective interventions groups with patients, collaborate with disciplinary and inter-professional colleagues, and understand the healing dimensions of environments. Clinical and simulation experiences are designed to provide sufficient opportunities for clinical reasoning, clinical care, and clinically situated knowledge integration.
Fall
1.5 Course Unit
Psychiatric, Behavioral, and Mental Health Nursing
1.5
NYM 2453
Nursing of Young and Middle Aged Adults
This course considers how nursing influences the health and healing capacities of young and middle aged adults who experience functional status impairments as a result of serious illness or injury. It focuses on the knowledge and skill acquisition needed to care for these patients at particular moments, across the continuum of care, and through transitions in an illness experience. It addresses nursing phenomena of concern, including risk factors for illness or injury, strategies to overcome barriers and support personal health resources, alleviate suffering and reduce the impact of illness or injury on the functioning of the person. Content and clinical experiences integrate developmental and role issues; policy, cultural and ethical considerations. Clinical experiences in acute care hospital units and simulation experiences provide opportunities for clinical reasoning, clinical care, and knowledge integration. Additional Prerequisite: Clinical 12 hours weekly and 2 hours Simulated Laboratory Weekly
Fall or Spring
1.5 Course Unit
Nursing of Young and Middle Aged Adults
1.5
NOA 2551
Nursing of Older Adults
This course considers how nursing influences the health and healing capacities of older adults. It focuses on the knowledge and skill acquisition needed to care for these patients at particular moments, across the continuum of care, and through transitions in an illness experience. It addresses nursing phenomena of concern including the unique set of principles and body of knowledge and skills necessary to the practice of nursing with older adults. Students are provided with the theoretical background necessary to understand health system issues affecting older adults. Students will attain the knowledge necessary to complete a comprehensive assessment of the older adult's physical, functional, psychosocial, and cognitive capacities. Common problems associated with cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological, musculoskeletal, sensory, and genitourinary systems that affect older adults will be discussed. In addition, principles of continuity of care, rehabilitation, nutritional and pharmacodynamic changes, cultural diversity and ethics will be integrated throughout the course. Clinical experiences in acute care hospitals and simulation experiences provide sufficient opportunities for clinical reasoning, clinical care, and knowledge integration. Special emphasis is placed on transitional care for older adults across the health care continuum. Additional Prerequisite: Clinical 12 hours weekly and 2 hours Simulated Laboratory Weekly
Fall or Spring
1.5 Course Unit
Nursing of Older Adults
1.5
Select a Nursing Case Study from among NCS 3542-NCS 360
1
PHN 3822
Public Health Nursing Care in Communities
This course considers how nursing influences the health and healing capacities of both communities as a whole (populations) and of groups, families, and individuals living within particular communities locally and globally. It addresses the complexity of nursing practice using a public health paradigm. It requires students to draw from prior class and clinical knowledge and skills and apply this practice base to communities across care settings, ages, and cultures with different experiences of equity and access to care. It provides the tools needed to engage in collaborative community work and to give voice to the community’s strengths, needs, and goals. It also moves students from an individual and family focus to a population focus for health assessment and intervention. Students consider the science, policies, and resources that support public health, and community based and community-oriented care. Clinical and simulated experiences in community settings provide sufficient opportunities for clinical reasoning, clinical care and knowledge integration in community settings. Students will have opportunities to care for patients and populations within selected communities.
Fall
1.5 Course Unit
Public Health Nursing Care in Communities
1.5
LCH 3901
Leadership in the Complex Healthcare System
This two-part course provides the didactic and clinical experiences in increasingly complex nursing care situations and environments which facilitate the students' transition to independent practice. In the lecture component, the focus is on the integration of knowledge and skill for nursing practice and develops the ability of students to see nursing practice as part of a complex system. It examines systems thinking and complexity, development of a leadership role and skills, inter-professional communication and teamwork, and leading change in healthcare organizations. This course also examines the nurse's role in improvement science and patient care delivery, focusing on quality improvement processes, patient safety, nurse sensitive process and outcome metrics with micro-systems. This course also allows students to develop the capacity for clinical expertise, leadership, and for translating the science of the profession into practice. Students also are assigned to a seminar component that is correlated with their selected site for the specialty clinical practicum. This aspect of the course allows the student to further develop leadership concepts learned in lecture while developing additional expertise in a specialty area of practice. These seminar components are adult health and illness, adult critical care, obstetrics/labor & delivery, and pediatrics. Advanced simulation experiences and extensive clinical practice in an area of the students' choice provide multiple opportunities to synthesize the multidimensional aspects of nursing and provide the environment which facilitates transition to professional nursing practice. Students select from a variety of settings in which to refine their practice skills. Principles of leadership, accountability and change will be applied to clinical practice as the student begins to operationalize the professional nursing role. Emphasis is placed on the nurse as a knowledgeable provider of health care who is both a change agent and advocate.
Fall or Spring
3 Course Units
Leadership in the Complex Healthcare System
3
Science Requirements
BBC 0062
Biologically-Based Chemistry
A contextual approach will be used in studying the concepts in General, Organic and Biological Chemistry that are foundational to an understanding of normal cellular processes. Topics that will be covered include measurements, atomic structure, bonding, chemical reactions, properties of gases and liquids, solutions, equilibrium, acids and bases, pH, buffers, nuclear chemistry, nomenclature and properties of the main organic functional groups, and the structures and function of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids.
Fall
.5 Course Units
Biologically-Based Chemistry
0.5
FN 0061
Fundamentals of Nutrition
Essentials of normal nutrition and their relationships to the health of individuals and families. These concepts serve as a basis for the development of an understanding of the therapeutic application of dietary principles and the nurse's role and responsibility in this facet of patient care. Prerequisite: Equivalent Science Sequence Course if course prerequisites not met
Spring
1 Course Unit
Fundamentals of Nutrition
1
ICB 0060
Integrated Cell Biology and Microbiology with Recitation
Through didactic and recitation interactive learning, students will explore the major topics of cell biology and microbiology that are foundational for an understanding of normal and pathological cellular processes. Topics will include the brief study of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell structures and functions; the main biological molecules; membrane transport; cellular communications; the flow of genetic information; cell division; and cellular metabolism. The course will also examine the role of cells and microbes in human health and infectious diseases. It will include a description of the main types of microbes, how they are identified, their growth requirements, and the role of the immune system in controlling infections, the control of microbes, host-microbe interactions. The context of the recitation sessions allow students to apply knowledge of cell biology and microbiology for understanding of advanced processes like the cellular basis of cancer and infectious human infection diseases. This course will include special sessions from a clinical perspective in the various fields of medicine, microbiology, and immunology.
Fall
1 Course Unit
Integrated Cell Biology and Microbiology with Recitation
1
IAP 1633
Integrated Anatomy, Physiology, and Physical Assessment I
This is the first part of a two-semester course designed to provide a comprehensive study of the structure and function of the human body along with essential embryology and maturational physiology. Histological and gross anatomical features of selected organ systems are related to the physiologic and biochemical mechanisms that enable the human body to maintain homeostasis. Within each system, deviations from normal are considered to situate the student's understanding of health problems and to foster an appreciation for the complexity of the human organism. Integrated into each topic are the correlated physical assessment parameters and related procedural skills. Laboratories exercises and case study analysis provide a contextual base to acquire and use domain-specific knowledge of concern to the practice of nursing. Prerequisite: Equivalent Science Sequence Course if course prerequisites not met.
Spring
2 Course Units
Integrated Anatomy, Physiology, and Physical Assessment I
2
IHA 1641
Integrated Human Anatomy, Physiology & Physical Assessment II
This is the second part of a two semester course designed to provide a comprehensive study of the structure and function of the human body along with essential embryology and maturational physiology. Histological and gross anatomical features of selected organ systems are related to the physiologic and biochemical mechanisms that enable the human body to maintain homeostasis. Within each system, deviations from normal are considered to situate the student's understanding of health problems and to foster an appreciation for the complexity of the human organism. Integrated laboratories and case studies provide a contextual base to acquire and use domain-specific knowledge that includes physical assessment, and procedural.
Fall
2 Course Units
Integrated Human Anatomy, Physiology & Physical Assessment II
2
IPP 1652
Integrated Pathophysiology, Pharmacology, and Therapeutics
Pathophysiologic concepts and processes are introduced with major emphasis on commonly occurring acute and chronic illnesses and their therapeutic interventions. Major classes of drugs that are used to support organ function are explored. The physiological and pathophysiological rationale for each drug indication, mechanisms of drug action, individualized dosing implications, and adverse drug events will be explored for prototypical agents used in the selected cases. The course will enhance the student's comprehension of the scientific complexity of therapeutic interventions in various conditions and will build upon the foundational sciences. Additionally the course will provide the student with sufficient scientific knowledge and skills to prepare administer and monitor drugs and therapies in a safe and effective manner.
Spring
2 Course Units
Integrated Pathophysiology, Pharmacology, and Therapeutics
2
Non-Clinical Courses
Health Policy Requirement
PPN 3341
Public Policy and the Nation's Health
This course examines health care and social policy from domestic and international perspectives. It is designed to engage undergraduate students in critical thinking about health policy issues as they affect our health care, employment, taxes, and social investments. The current national debate on health care reform is used as a frame of reference for examining the strengths and weaknesses of health care services in the U.S. from the perspectives of patients/families, health professionals, health services providers, insurers, employers, and public policy makers, and the pros and cons of a range of prescriptions for system improvement from across the political spectrum. About a third of the course focuses more specifically on global public health challenges and the policy strategies for reducing health disparities worldwide. Please note, the online version of this course has a synchronous component (live online class sessions). The day/time will be listed in the course register.
Spring
1 Course Unit
Public Policy and the Nation's Health
1
or AHS 4001
Advances In Health Systems Research And Analysis
Capstone Course for NURS/WH Joint Degree Students. Prerequisite: By Permission Only
Spring, even numbered years only
1 Course Unit
Advances In Health Systems Research And Analysis
or CIH 5403
Current Issues In Health and Social Policy
Analysis of key contemporary issues in health and social policy that will provide students with a deeper understanding of the design and structure of the U.S. health care system, the policy initiatives that have shaped it, and the roles of the government, the private sector, and consumers and advocacy groups in setting the policy agenda. Seminars will examine the origins of each issue, the policies enacted and their effects, both intended and unintended, and will propose and debate the merits of alternative policy solutions. The role of health services and policy research in informing the policy debate and directions will be highlighted. Please note, the online version of this course has a synchronous component (live online class sessions).
Fall, Spring, and Summer Terms
1 Course Unit
Current Issues In Health and Social Policy
SRM 2302
Statistics for Research and Measurement
This course examines statistical methods used by scientists in the analysis of research data. The fundamental theorem for this course is the "square root law" (central limit theorem). Students become literate in statistical terminology and symbols and knowledgeable of assumptions for statistical tests. Fundamental statistics include basic theorems and principles, sample, population and data distributions, measures of central tendency, correlational techniques, and commonly used parametric and nonparametric statistical tests. Parameters for inferential and descriptive statistics are examined as the basis for explaining the results from research studies. Students apply chance models in estimating confidence intervals of percentages and means, and in hypothesis testing. This content is taught in the context of nursing research and measurement of nursing phenomena. Examination of research publications enable students to apply their knowledge to reading and understanding data analyses used in studies. Students evaluate tables and graphs as ways to summarize research findings. Course content prepares students to examine statistical and clinical significance of research findings.
Fall
1 Course Unit
Statistics for Research and Measurement
1
SIE 5471
Scientific Inquiry for Evidence-based Practice
This course is designed to advance students' understanding of the research process, methods of scientific inquiry, and analytical techniques. Students acquire knowledge of systematic approaches used by scientists to design and conduct studies. Course content prepares students to appraise quantitative and qualitative research, and evaluate the scientific merit and clinical significance of research for translation into practice. Evidence-based guidelines are examined and rated for strength of evidence and expert consensus using evidence grading systems and defined criteria. Students engage in variety of creative learning experiences to facilitate appreciative inquiry, clinical reasoning, and evidence-based practice. Quality improvement, comparative effectiveness analyses, information science, and electronic health systems technology demonstrate the capacity for measurement and surveillance of nursing-sensitive and other outcomes used to evaluate quality nursing care and test interventions. Ethical, legal and health policy implications for research are explored. This course serves as the basis for scientific inquiry about human experiences to address important problems that require solutions and to expand the research and the evidence base for professional nursing practice.
Fall or Spring
1 Course Unit
Scientific Inquiry for Evidence-based Practice
1
Ethics Requirement
TFH 3301
Theoretical Foundations of Health Care Ethics
The theoretical foundations of health care ethics including definitions of ethics, history of bioethics and nursing ethics, and the influence of religion,psychology of moral development and philosophy in the development of ethical theory. Nursing code of ethics, changing ideas in ethics, and discussion of the developing profession of nursing are included.
Fall or Spring
1 Course Unit
Theoretical Foundations of Health Care Ethics
1
or NB 1343
Bioethics
This course is an introduction to bioethics, focusing on ethical questions arising at the beginning and end of life. Topics will include procreative responsibilities, the question of wrongful life, and prenatal moral status as well as questions of justice related to markets for sperm, eggs and gestation. We will also attend to dilemmas at the end of life, including the authority of advance directives, euthanasia and the allocation of life-saving therapies.
Not Offered Every Year
1 Course Unit
Bioethics
or EAH 5251
Ethical Aspects of Health and Technology
Interdisciplinary approach to the study of the interface between ethics and law in the provision of health and illness care. This course draws upon the disciplines of philosophy, law, biomedical engineering and nursing in examining such concepts as the use/non-use of biomedical technology, who and how one decides what shall be done for a given "patient," and the "rights" and responsibilities (accountability) of all persons involved in health/illness care decisions. The interplay of ethical theory, personal value systems, law and technology will be stressed throughout. Lectures, seminars and case studies will be used.
Spring
1 Course Unit
Ethical Aspects of Health and Technology
or IB 4012
Introduction to Bioethics
This course is intended to serve as an introduction to the academic field of bioethics. Students will be introduced to classic papers, basic concepts, field history and important legal cases in the field. But rather than being a broad survey course of many content areas in bioethics, this course will examine how bioethical arguments are constructed with the objective of mastering both the critique of bioethical arguments and their construction. Therefore, most importantly, this course serves as a “methods course” for learning the skill of persuasive bioethics argument, i.e., “the art of conversion.” In some of the course sessions, we will focus on the analysis of arguments made by others. In many of the weeks of the course, we will focus on the process of constructing our own, effective bioethical arguments.
Fall
1 Course Unit
Introduction to Bioethics
or FB 4023
Foundations of Bioethics
This course examines the various theoretical approaches to bioethics and critically assesses their underpinnings. Topics to be covered include an examination of various versions of deontological theories, utilitarianism, virtue ethics, principlism, casuistry, feminist ethics, narrative theory, and pragmatism.
1 Course Unit
Foundations of Bioethics
RIB 3891
Research/Inquiry-Based Service Residency
This course is designed to facilitate students' intellectual curiosity and independence in exploring the research process in an area of interest. Similar to clinical practica, NURS389 serves as the research practicum for NURS230 and NURS547. In this applied course, students will engage in a structured, hands-on faculty-mentored experience. Students will be contacted approximately 6-10 weeks prior to the start of the semester of enrollment to either: 1) submit a proposal to work on an existing project with an established mentor, or 2) identify their key areas of interest and select from an existing list of projects/preceptors that varies by semester. Students will be matched with a research preceptor based on their selections and, in collaboration with their preceptor, they will define learning objectives to guide their individualized plan of study. Students have opportunities to experience systematic methods for research, service-based clinical inquiry, or quality improvement. This mentored residency can be fulfilled by completing one of the following options: * Research-based practicum in basic or social science, clinical research, nursing history, healthcare policy, ethics, or informatics. * Inquiry-based Service practicum such as conducting quality improvement procedures or program evaluations in an affiliated healthcare institution. Students must register for both the lecture and recitation sections. For the recitation section students are expected, with the assistance of their advisor, to allocate 2 hours of work outside of class each week towards their project. Students can schedule this work based on their own schedule but must be prepared to complete the work each week. The course is taken in the final semester of the senior year.
Fall or Spring
.5 Course Units
Research/Inquiry-Based Service Residency
0.5
Total Course Units
36
The degree and major requirements displayed are intended as a guide for students entering in the Fall of 2023 and later. Students should consult with their academic program regarding final certifications and requirements for graduation.
First Year
FALL
COURSE UNITS
BBC 0061
Biologically-Based Chemistry
A contextual approach will be used in studying the concepts in General, Organic and Biological Chemistry that are foundational to an understanding of normal cellular processes. Topics that will be covered include measurements, atomic structure, bonding, chemical reactions, properties of gases and liquids, solutions, equilibrium, acids and bases, pH, buffers, nuclear chemistry, nomenclature and properties of the main organic functional groups, and the structures and function of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids.
Fall
.5 Course Units
Biologically-Based Chemistry
0.5
ICB 0062
Integrated Cell Biology and Microbiology with Recitation
Through didactic and recitation interactive learning, students will explore the major topics of cell biology and microbiology that are foundational for an understanding of normal and pathological cellular processes. Topics will include the brief study of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell structures and functions; the main biological molecules; membrane transport; cellular communications; the flow of genetic information; cell division; and cellular metabolism. The course will also examine the role of cells and microbes in human health and infectious diseases. It will include a description of the main types of microbes, how they are identified, their growth requirements, and the role of the immune system in controlling infections, the control of microbes, host-microbe interactions. The context of the recitation sessions allow students to apply knowledge of cell biology and microbiology for understanding of advanced processes like the cellular basis of cancer and infectious human infection diseases. This course will include special sessions from a clinical perspective in the various fields of medicine, microbiology, and immunology.
Fall
1 Course Unit
Integrated Cell Biology and Microbiology with Recitation
1
TNN 1011
The Nature of Nursing Practice
This course facilitates students' ability to conceptualize the experiences of individuals, families, communities, and populations living with health and illness. It emphasizes the integration of knowledge from other disciplines and of nursing science as the basis for practice. The course introduces the four core themes of the undergraduate nursing program: engagement, inquiry, judgment, and voice and examines how the themes are used to characterize the nature of nursing practice.
Fall
.5 Course Units
The Nature of Nursing Practice
0.5
Critical Writing Requirement
1
Language Requirement (or free elective if level II proficiency met)
1
Course Units
4.00
SPRING
FNN 0062
Fundamentals of Nutrition
Essentials of normal nutrition and their relationships to the health of individuals and families. These concepts serve as a basis for the development of an understanding of the therapeutic application of dietary principles and the nurse's role and responsibility in this facet of patient care. Prerequisite: Equivalent Science Sequence Course if course prerequisites not met
Spring
1 Course Unit
Fundamentals of Nutrition
1
IAP 1631
Integrated Anatomy, Physiology, and Physical Assessment I
This is the first part of a two-semester course designed to provide a comprehensive study of the structure and function of the human body along with essential embryology and maturational physiology. Histological and gross anatomical features of selected organ systems are related to the physiologic and biochemical mechanisms that enable the human body to maintain homeostasis. Within each system, deviations from normal are considered to situate the student's understanding of health problems and to foster an appreciation for the complexity of the human organism. Integrated into each topic are the correlated physical assessment parameters and related procedural skills. Laboratories exercises and case study analysis provide a contextual base to acquire and use domain-specific knowledge of concern to the practice of nursing. Prerequisite: Equivalent Science Sequence Course if course prerequisites not met.
Spring
2 Course Units
Integrated Anatomy, Physiology, and Physical Assessment I
2
SPN 1023
Situating the Practice of Nursing
This course emphasizes not only how nursing is practiced, but also where it is practiced. The course further explores the four core themes of engagement, inquiry, judgment, and voice as it provides guided observational experiences in a wide variety of settings. These experiences help the student to discover what is not known and what is subsequently necessary to know. These experiences also explore the place of the natural and social sciences and the arts and humanities in nursing practice. This course also will highlight the relationships between and among members of the interprofessional team and families and patients. NURS 102 fosters development of the professional role and sets the stage for life-long learning.
Spring
.5 Course Units
Situating the Practice of Nursing
0.5
Sector Requirement (e.g. The Planet & Our Climate) 1
1
Language Requirement (or free elective if level II proficiency met) 2
1
Course Units
5.50
Second Year
FALL
IHA 1641
Integrated Human Anatomy, Physiology & Physical Assessment II
This is the second part of a two semester course designed to provide a comprehensive study of the structure and function of the human body along with essential embryology and maturational physiology. Histological and gross anatomical features of selected organ systems are related to the physiologic and biochemical mechanisms that enable the human body to maintain homeostasis. Within each system, deviations from normal are considered to situate the student's understanding of health problems and to foster an appreciation for the complexity of the human organism. Integrated laboratories and case studies provide a contextual base to acquire and use domain-specific knowledge that includes physical assessment, and procedural.
Fall
2 Course Units
Integrated Human Anatomy, Physiology & Physical Assessment II
2
PSD 1032
Psychological and Social Diversity in Health and Wellness
This course explores and integrates the intersection of psychological, cognitive, and social development with the lived experiences of individuals, families, and communities across the lifespan in order to conduct socially contextualized health assessments and health teaching. Extant theories will be critically analyzed and examined with respect to issues of health care access, health history, health promotion, and issues of equity and diversity from a life-course perspective. This knowledge will be synthesized and integrated with the development of the student's communication skills and interviewing processes necessary to develop socially attuned health history and teaching that promote psychological well being and healthy lifestyles. Simulated and observational experiences provide students with opportunities to acquire and apply knowledge necessary for conducting a comprehensive health history of an individual situated within a diverse community. They also provide opportunities to develop prioritized health teaching plans in partnership with that individual.
Fall
1 Course Unit
Psychological and Social Diversity in Health and Wellness
1
Sector Requirement (e.g. Societies, Histories, & Traditions)
1
Course Units
4.00
SPRING
IPP 1651
Integrated Pathophysiology, Pharmacology, and Therapeutics
Pathophysiologic concepts and processes are introduced with major emphasis on commonly occurring acute and chronic illnesses and their therapeutic interventions. Major classes of drugs that are used to support organ function are explored. The physiological and pathophysiological rationale for each drug indication, mechanisms of drug action, individualized dosing implications, and adverse drug events will be explored for prototypical agents used in the selected cases. The course will enhance the student's comprehension of the scientific complexity of therapeutic interventions in various conditions and will build upon the foundational sciences. Additionally the course will provide the student with sufficient scientific knowledge and skills to prepare administer and monitor drugs and therapies in a safe and effective manner.
Spring
2 Course Units
Integrated Pathophysiology, Pharmacology, and Therapeutics
2
NWI 2152
Nursing of Women and Infants
This course emphasizes the child-bearing cycle, and the related issues of maternal and infant mortality and morbidity. It also explores women and infant's health care and health promotion needs across the lifespan. It provides a global perspective, and uses the United Nations' Pillars of Safe Motherhood and World Health Organization's Millennium Development Goals as the vehicles to enable students to understand the interrelationships among issues of health and health promotion; social, economic, political and environmental contexts; and the care of women across the lifespan. Clinical experiences provide opportunities for students to understand the connections between the local and the global; to use their developing knowledge base to affect the health of women and their infants. Students will have opportunities for hospital-based care of child-bearing women and their infants. In addition, community-based experiences with individual women and with groups of women across the life cycle will be provided in order to enhance teaching, interviewing and assessment skills.
Spring
1.5 Course Unit
Nursing of Women and Infants
1.5
Sector Requirement (e.g. Global Arts, Letters, & Cultures)
1
Course Units
4.50
Third Year
FALL
NYM 2451
Nursing of Young and Middle Aged Adults
This course considers how nursing influences the health and healing capacities of young and middle aged adults who experience functional status impairments as a result of serious illness or injury. It focuses on the knowledge and skill acquisition needed to care for these patients at particular moments, across the continuum of care, and through transitions in an illness experience. It addresses nursing phenomena of concern, including risk factors for illness or injury, strategies to overcome barriers and support personal health resources, alleviate suffering and reduce the impact of illness or injury on the functioning of the person. Content and clinical experiences integrate developmental and role issues; policy, cultural and ethical considerations. Clinical experiences in acute care hospital units and simulation experiences provide opportunities for clinical reasoning, clinical care, and knowledge integration. Additional Prerequisite: Clinical 12 hours weekly and 2 hours Simulated Laboratory Weekly
Fall or Spring
1.5 Course Unit
Nursing of Young and Middle Aged Adults
3
& NOA 2552
Nursing of Older Adults
This course considers how nursing influences the health and healing capacities of older adults. It focuses on the knowledge and skill acquisition needed to care for these patients at particular moments, across the continuum of care, and through transitions in an illness experience. It addresses nursing phenomena of concern including the unique set of principles and body of knowledge and skills necessary to the practice of nursing with older adults. Students are provided with the theoretical background necessary to understand health system issues affecting older adults. Students will attain the knowledge necessary to complete a comprehensive assessment of the older adult's physical, functional, psychosocial, and cognitive capacities. Common problems associated with cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological, musculoskeletal, sensory, and genitourinary systems that affect older adults will be discussed. In addition, principles of continuity of care, rehabilitation, nutritional and pharmacodynamic changes, cultural diversity and ethics will be integrated throughout the course. Clinical experiences in acute care hospitals and simulation experiences provide sufficient opportunities for clinical reasoning, clinical care, and knowledge integration. Special emphasis is placed on transitional care for older adults across the health care continuum. Additional Prerequisite: Clinical 12 hours weekly and 2 hours Simulated Laboratory Weekly
Fall or Spring
1.5 Course Unit
and Nursing of Older Adults
Select one of the following:
1
PPN 3343
Public Policy and the Nation's Health
This course examines health care and social policy from domestic and international perspectives. It is designed to engage undergraduate students in critical thinking about health policy issues as they affect our health care, employment, taxes, and social investments. The current national debate on health care reform is used as a frame of reference for examining the strengths and weaknesses of health care services in the U.S. from the perspectives of patients/families, health professionals, health services providers, insurers, employers, and public policy makers, and the pros and cons of a range of prescriptions for system improvement from across the political spectrum. About a third of the course focuses more specifically on global public health challenges and the policy strategies for reducing health disparities worldwide. Please note, the online version of this course has a synchronous component (live online class sessions). The day/time will be listed in the course register.
Spring
1 Course Unit
Public Policy and the Nation's Health (or approved Health Policy course) 3
TFH 3301
Theoretical Foundations of Health Care Ethics
The theoretical foundations of health care ethics including definitions of ethics, history of bioethics and nursing ethics, and the influence of religion,psychology of moral development and philosophy in the development of ethical theory. Nursing code of ethics, changing ideas in ethics, and discussion of the developing profession of nursing are included.
Fall or Spring
1 Course Unit
Theoretical Foundations of Health Care Ethics (or approved Health Care Ethics course) 4
SRM 2302
Statistics for Research and Measurement
This course examines statistical methods used by scientists in the analysis of research data. The fundamental theorem for this course is the "square root law" (central limit theorem). Students become literate in statistical terminology and symbols and knowledgeable of assumptions for statistical tests. Fundamental statistics include basic theorems and principles, sample, population and data distributions, measures of central tendency, correlational techniques, and commonly used parametric and nonparametric statistical tests. Parameters for inferential and descriptive statistics are examined as the basis for explaining the results from research studies. Students apply chance models in estimating confidence intervals of percentages and means, and in hypothesis testing. This content is taught in the context of nursing research and measurement of nursing phenomena. Examination of research publications enable students to apply their knowledge to reading and understanding data analyses used in studies. Students evaluate tables and graphs as ways to summarize research findings. Course content prepares students to examine statistical and clinical significance of research findings.
Fall
1 Course Unit
Statistics for Research and Measurement
1
Course Units
5.00
SPRING
PBM 2351
Psychiatric, Behavioral, and Mental Health Nursing
This course examines the influences of psychological, emtional, cognitive and social development of individuals and groups across the lifespan. Students combine this foundational knowledge with their developing understanding of social determinants of health. This course will help students learn to identify and assess individual, family and group level needs for those persons at risk for or experiencing behavioral or psychiatric/mental health challenges using evidence-based interventions applicable across the continuum of care. Emphasis is placed on the role of the professional nurse in assuring the delivery of equitable behavioral and pychiatric/mental health nursing care. The course addresses nursing phenomena of concern related the meanings of a behavioral or mental mental health illness and the development of healing relationships with individuals, families, and groups. In addition, the student will learn essential advanced communication strategies, including exposure to skills necessary for motivational interviewing, essential to engage individual and families in mental health promotion and treatment. This course provides the tools to enable students to construct effective interventions groups with patients, collaborate with disciplinary and inter-professional colleagues, and understand the healing dimensions of environments. Clinical and simulation experiences are designed to provide sufficient opportunities for clinical reasoning, clinical care, and clinically situated knowledge integration.
Fall
1.5 Course Unit
Psychiatric, Behavioral, and Mental Health Nursing
3
& PN 2253
Pediatric Nursing
This course considers how nursing influences the health and healing capacities of infants, children, adolescents and their families. It focuses on the knowledge and skill acquisition needed to care for these patients at particular moments, across the continuum of care, and through transitions in an illness experience. It addresses pediatric nursing phenomena of concern and major final common pathways of pediatric illness from infancy through adolescence using a using a developmental and systems approach. Emphasis is placed on family-centered care through transitions in the illness and recovery phases. The course emphasizes clinical reasoning; family centered strategies for optimizing health and maintaining individuality; promoting optimal developmental, physiological, and psychological functioning; and enhancing strengths within the context of family. Clinical experiences at various children's hospitals and simulation experiences provide sufficient opportunities for clinical reasoning, clinical care and knowledge integration. Additional Prerequisite: Clinical 12 hours weekly and 2 hours Simulated Laboratory Weekly
Fall or Spring
1.5 Course Unit
and Pediatric Nursing
Select one of the following:
1
PPN 3344
Public Policy and the Nation's Health
This course examines health care and social policy from domestic and international perspectives. It is designed to engage undergraduate students in critical thinking about health policy issues as they affect our health care, employment, taxes, and social investments. The current national debate on health care reform is used as a frame of reference for examining the strengths and weaknesses of health care services in the U.S. from the perspectives of patients/families, health professionals, health services providers, insurers, employers, and public policy makers, and the pros and cons of a range of prescriptions for system improvement from across the political spectrum. About a third of the course focuses more specifically on global public health challenges and the policy strategies for reducing health disparities worldwide. Please note, the online version of this course has a synchronous component (live online class sessions). The day/time will be listed in the course register.
Spring
1 Course Unit
Public Policy and the Nation's Health (or approved Health Policy course)
TFH 3301
Theoretical Foundations of Health Care Ethics
The theoretical foundations of health care ethics including definitions of ethics, history of bioethics and nursing ethics, and the influence of religion,psychology of moral development and philosophy in the development of ethical theory. Nursing code of ethics, changing ideas in ethics, and discussion of the developing profession of nursing are included.
Fall or Spring
1 Course Unit
Theoretical Foundations of Health Care Ethics (or approved Health Care Ethics course)
SIE 5473
Scientific Inquiry for Evidence-based Practice
This course is designed to advance students' understanding of the research process, methods of scientific inquiry, and analytical techniques. Students acquire knowledge of systematic approaches used by scientists to design and conduct studies. Course content prepares students to appraise quantitative and qualitative research, and evaluate the scientific merit and clinical significance of research for translation into practice. Evidence-based guidelines are examined and rated for strength of evidence and expert consensus using evidence grading systems and defined criteria. Students engage in variety of creative learning experiences to facilitate appreciative inquiry, clinical reasoning, and evidence-based practice. Quality improvement, comparative effectiveness analyses, information science, and electronic health systems technology demonstrate the capacity for measurement and surveillance of nursing-sensitive and other outcomes used to evaluate quality nursing care and test interventions. Ethical, legal and health policy implications for research are explored. This course serves as the basis for scientific inquiry about human experiences to address important problems that require solutions and to expand the research and the evidence base for professional nursing practice.
Fall or Spring
1 Course Unit
Scientific Inquiry for Evidence-based Practice
1
Course Units
5.00
Fourth Year
FALL
PHC 3821
Public Health Nursing Care in Communities
This course considers how nursing influences the health and healing capacities of both communities as a whole (populations) and of groups, families, and individuals living within particular communities locally and globally. It addresses the complexity of nursing practice using a public health paradigm. It requires students to draw from prior class and clinical knowledge and skills and apply this practice base to communities across care settings, ages, and cultures with different experiences of equity and access to care. It provides the tools needed to engage in collaborative community work and to give voice to the community’s strengths, needs, and goals. It also moves students from an individual and family focus to a population focus for health assessment and intervention. Students consider the science, policies, and resources that support public health, and community based and community-oriented care. Clinical and simulated experiences in community settings provide sufficient opportunities for clinical reasoning, clinical care and knowledge integration in community settings. Students will have opportunities to care for patients and populations within selected communities.
Fall
1.5 Course Unit
Public Health Nursing Care in Communities
1.5
Select 1 course from NPN 3551-NPP 3682
1
Sector Requirement (e.g. Diversity, Universality, Justice, & Equity)
1
Sector Requirement (e.g. Exploration Course)
1
Course Units
4.50
SPRING
LCH 3901
Leadership in the Complex Healthcare System
This two-part course provides the didactic and clinical experiences in increasingly complex nursing care situations and environments which facilitate the students' transition to independent practice. In the lecture component, the focus is on the integration of knowledge and skill for nursing practice and develops the ability of students to see nursing practice as part of a complex system. It examines systems thinking and complexity, development of a leadership role and skills, inter-professional communication and teamwork, and leading change in healthcare organizations. This course also examines the nurse's role in improvement science and patient care delivery, focusing on quality improvement processes, patient safety, nurse sensitive process and outcome metrics with micro-systems. This course also allows students to develop the capacity for clinical expertise, leadership, and for translating the science of the profession into practice. Students also are assigned to a seminar component that is correlated with their selected site for the specialty clinical practicum. This aspect of the course allows the student to further develop leadership concepts learned in lecture while developing additional expertise in a specialty area of practice. These seminar components are adult health and illness, adult critical care, obstetrics/labor & delivery, and pediatrics. Advanced simulation experiences and extensive clinical practice in an area of the students' choice provide multiple opportunities to synthesize the multidimensional aspects of nursing and provide the environment which facilitates transition to professional nursing practice. Students select from a variety of settings in which to refine their practice skills. Principles of leadership, accountability and change will be applied to clinical practice as the student begins to operationalize the professional nursing role. Emphasis is placed on the nurse as a knowledgeable provider of health care who is both a change agent and advocate.
Fall or Spring
3 Course Units
Leadership in the Complex Healthcare System
3
RIB 3893
Research/Inquiry-Based Service Residency
This course is designed to facilitate students' intellectual curiosity and independence in exploring the research process in an area of interest. Similar to clinical practica, NURS389 serves as the research practicum for NURS230 and NURS547. In this applied course, students will engage in a structured, hands-on faculty-mentored experience. Students will be contacted approximately 6-10 weeks prior to the start of the semester of enrollment to either: 1) submit a proposal to work on an existing project with an established mentor, or 2) identify their key areas of interest and select from an existing list of projects/preceptors that varies by semester. Students will be matched with a research preceptor based on their selections and, in collaboration with their preceptor, they will define learning objectives to guide their individualized plan of study. Students have opportunities to experience systematic methods for research, service-based clinical inquiry, or quality improvement. This mentored residency can be fulfilled by completing one of the following options: * Research-based practicum in basic or social science, clinical research, nursing history, healthcare policy, ethics, or informatics. * Inquiry-based Service practicum such as conducting quality improvement procedures or program evaluations in an affiliated healthcare institution. Students must register for both the lecture and recitation sections. For the recitation section students are expected, with the assistance of their advisor, to allocate 2 hours of work outside of class each week towards their project. Students can schedule this work based on their own schedule but must be prepared to complete the work each week. The course is taken in the final semester of the senior year.
Fall or Spring
.5 Course Units
Research/Inquiry-Based Service Residency
0.5
Course Units
3.50
Total Course Units
36.00
Students must consult with an academic advisor prior to making revisions to the plan of study to ensure that the necessary curricular requirements are being met and to prevent delays in academic progression.
BSN Plan of Study: Accelerated Fall Start
Transfer Credit
Please note: This is an estimation of potential transfer credit and does not constitute final approval until all final transcripts are submitted, course completion and grades are verified, etc.
BBC 0062
Biologically-Based Chemistry
A contextual approach will be used in studying the concepts in General, Organic and Biological Chemistry that are foundational to an understanding of normal cellular processes. Topics that will be covered include measurements, atomic structure, bonding, chemical reactions, properties of gases and liquids, solutions, equilibrium, acids and bases, pH, buffers, nuclear chemistry, nomenclature and properties of the main organic functional groups, and the structures and function of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids.
Fall
.5 Course Units
Biologically-Based Chemistry
0.5
FN 0061
Fundamentals of Nutrition
Essentials of normal nutrition and their relationships to the health of individuals and families. These concepts serve as a basis for the development of an understanding of the therapeutic application of dietary principles and the nurse's role and responsibility in this facet of patient care. Prerequisite: Equivalent Science Sequence Course if course prerequisites not met
Spring
1 Course Unit
Fundamentals of Nutrition
1
ICB 0061
Integrated Cell Biology and Microbiology with Recitation
Through didactic and recitation interactive learning, students will explore the major topics of cell biology and microbiology that are foundational for an understanding of normal and pathological cellular processes. Topics will include the brief study of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell structures and functions; the main biological molecules; membrane transport; cellular communications; the flow of genetic information; cell division; and cellular metabolism. The course will also examine the role of cells and microbes in human health and infectious diseases. It will include a description of the main types of microbes, how they are identified, their growth requirements, and the role of the immune system in controlling infections, the control of microbes, host-microbe interactions. The context of the recitation sessions allow students to apply knowledge of cell biology and microbiology for understanding of advanced processes like the cellular basis of cancer and infectious human infection diseases. This course will include special sessions from a clinical perspective in the various fields of medicine, microbiology, and immunology.
Fall
1 Course Unit
Integrated Cell Biology and Microbiology with Recitation
1
HAP 1312
Human Anatomy and Physiology - Part A
The structural and functional organization of the human organism is presented, along with the fundamentals of developmental anatomy and embryology. Histologic and gross anatomical features of selected organ systems are related to the physiologic and biochemical mechanisms which enable the human body to maintain homeostasis in an ever-changing environment. Prerequisite: Equivalent College Level Chemistry and Biology if course prerequisites not met
Spring
1.5 Course Unit
Human Anatomy and Physiology - Part A
1.5
HAP 1321
Human Anatomy and Physiology - Part B
The structural and functional organization of the human organism is presented, along with the fundementals of developmental anatomy and embtyology. Histologic and gross anatomical features of each organ system are related to the physiologic and biochemical mechanisms which enable the human body to maintain homeostasis in an ever-changing environment. Basic concepts of pathophysiology are introduced and applied to certain clinical disorders.
Fall
1.5 Course Unit
Human Anatomy and Physiology - Part B
1.5
SRM 2301
Statistics for Research and Measurement
This course examines statistical methods used by scientists in the analysis of research data. The fundamental theorem for this course is the "square root law" (central limit theorem). Students become literate in statistical terminology and symbols and knowledgeable of assumptions for statistical tests. Fundamental statistics include basic theorems and principles, sample, population and data distributions, measures of central tendency, correlational techniques, and commonly used parametric and nonparametric statistical tests. Parameters for inferential and descriptive statistics are examined as the basis for explaining the results from research studies. Students apply chance models in estimating confidence intervals of percentages and means, and in hypothesis testing. This content is taught in the context of nursing research and measurement of nursing phenomena. Examination of research publications enable students to apply their knowledge to reading and understanding data analyses used in studies. Students evaluate tables and graphs as ways to summarize research findings. Course content prepares students to examine statistical and clinical significance of research findings.
Fall
1 Course Unit
Statistics for Research and Measurement
1
Liberal Arts Waiver
8
First Year - Fall
PP 1592
Pathways to Practice
This course builds on the accelerated student's background and experience and uses them as building blocks to garner the intellectual capital needed to integrate his/her identity as a professional nurse. The course links the Penn Compact 2020 to the four core themes of Penn's BSN nursing program: engagement, inquiry, judgment, and voice. It introduces phenomena of concern to nursing, contextualizes societal meanings of nursing practice and health care delivery across time and place, and stresses the importance of nursing science as the basis for practice. Emphasis is placed on debate, critical analysis, and constructing a logical and lucid verbal and written argument regarding issues related to professional nursing practice and health care delivery.
1 Course Unit
Pathways to Practice
1
PA 1601
Physical Assessment
This is a laboratory course designed to help beginning nursing students to develop competence in the process of physical assessment. Students engage in actual practice of physical assessment with fellow students as their 'patient' subject. A blending of instructor demonstration and supervision of physical examination practice sessions is used in the learning laboratory setting. Students prepare via self-learning activities with a variety of supplied resources (readings, videotapes, computer programs) and have the opportunity to refine their skill though faculty-supervised practice sessions. Procedural skills that correlate with the presentations of physiologic system assessment are included. Prerequisite: For students in Accelerated BSN Nursing Program Only
Summer Term
1 Course Unit
Physical Assessment
1
IPP 1652
Integrated Pathophysiology, Pharmacology, and Therapeutics
Pathophysiologic concepts and processes are introduced with major emphasis on commonly occurring acute and chronic illnesses and their therapeutic interventions. Major classes of drugs that are used to support organ function are explored. The physiological and pathophysiological rationale for each drug indication, mechanisms of drug action, individualized dosing implications, and adverse drug events will be explored for prototypical agents used in the selected cases. The course will enhance the student's comprehension of the scientific complexity of therapeutic interventions in various conditions and will build upon the foundational sciences. Additionally the course will provide the student with sufficient scientific knowledge and skills to prepare administer and monitor drugs and therapies in a safe and effective manner.
Spring
2 Course Units
Integrated Pathophysiology, Pharmacology, and Therapeutics
2
SIE 5471
Scientific Inquiry for Evidence-based Practice
This course is designed to advance students' understanding of the research process, methods of scientific inquiry, and analytical techniques. Students acquire knowledge of systematic approaches used by scientists to design and conduct studies. Course content prepares students to appraise quantitative and qualitative research, and evaluate the scientific merit and clinical significance of research for translation into practice. Evidence-based guidelines are examined and rated for strength of evidence and expert consensus using evidence grading systems and defined criteria. Students engage in variety of creative learning experiences to facilitate appreciative inquiry, clinical reasoning, and evidence-based practice. Quality improvement, comparative effectiveness analyses, information science, and electronic health systems technology demonstrate the capacity for measurement and surveillance of nursing-sensitive and other outcomes used to evaluate quality nursing care and test interventions. Ethical, legal and health policy implications for research are explored. This course serves as the basis for scientific inquiry about human experiences to address important problems that require solutions and to expand the research and the evidence base for professional nursing practice.
Fall or Spring
1 Course Unit
Scientific Inquiry for Evidence-based Practice
1
First Year - Spring
CIH 5401
Current Issues In Health and Social Policy
Analysis of key contemporary issues in health and social policy that will provide students with a deeper understanding of the design and structure of the U.S. health care system, the policy initiatives that have shaped it, and the roles of the government, the private sector, and consumers and advocacy groups in setting the policy agenda. Seminars will examine the origins of each issue, the policies enacted and their effects, both intended and unintended, and will propose and debate the merits of alternative policy solutions. The role of health services and policy research in informing the policy debate and directions will be highlighted. Please note, the online version of this course has a synchronous component (live online class sessions).
Fall, Spring, and Summer Terms
1 Course Unit
Current Issues In Health and Social Policy
1
PSD 1032
Psychological and Social Diversity in Health and Wellness
This course explores and integrates the intersection of psychological, cognitive, and social development with the lived experiences of individuals, families, and communities across the lifespan in order to conduct socially contextualized health assessments and health teaching. Extant theories will be critically analyzed and examined with respect to issues of health care access, health history, health promotion, and issues of equity and diversity from a life-course perspective. This knowledge will be synthesized and integrated with the development of the student's communication skills and interviewing processes necessary to develop socially attuned health history and teaching that promote psychological well being and healthy lifestyles. Simulated and observational experiences provide students with opportunities to acquire and apply knowledge necessary for conducting a comprehensive health history of an individual situated within a diverse community. They also provide opportunities to develop prioritized health teaching plans in partnership with that individual.
Fall
1 Course Unit
Psychological and Social Diversity in Health and Wellness
1
NYM 2451
Nursing of Young and Middle Aged Adults
This course considers how nursing influences the health and healing capacities of young and middle aged adults who experience functional status impairments as a result of serious illness or injury. It focuses on the knowledge and skill acquisition needed to care for these patients at particular moments, across the continuum of care, and through transitions in an illness experience. It addresses nursing phenomena of concern, including risk factors for illness or injury, strategies to overcome barriers and support personal health resources, alleviate suffering and reduce the impact of illness or injury on the functioning of the person. Content and clinical experiences integrate developmental and role issues; policy, cultural and ethical considerations. Clinical experiences in acute care hospital units and simulation experiences provide opportunities for clinical reasoning, clinical care, and knowledge integration. Additional Prerequisite: Clinical 12 hours weekly and 2 hours Simulated Laboratory Weekly
Fall or Spring
1.5 Course Unit
Nursing of Young and Middle Aged Adults
1.5
NOA 2552
Nursing of Older Adults
This course considers how nursing influences the health and healing capacities of older adults. It focuses on the knowledge and skill acquisition needed to care for these patients at particular moments, across the continuum of care, and through transitions in an illness experience. It addresses nursing phenomena of concern including the unique set of principles and body of knowledge and skills necessary to the practice of nursing with older adults. Students are provided with the theoretical background necessary to understand health system issues affecting older adults. Students will attain the knowledge necessary to complete a comprehensive assessment of the older adult's physical, functional, psychosocial, and cognitive capacities. Common problems associated with cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological, musculoskeletal, sensory, and genitourinary systems that affect older adults will be discussed. In addition, principles of continuity of care, rehabilitation, nutritional and pharmacodynamic changes, cultural diversity and ethics will be integrated throughout the course. Clinical experiences in acute care hospitals and simulation experiences provide sufficient opportunities for clinical reasoning, clinical care, and knowledge integration. Special emphasis is placed on transitional care for older adults across the health care continuum. Additional Prerequisite: Clinical 12 hours weekly and 2 hours Simulated Laboratory Weekly
Fall or Spring
1.5 Course Unit
Nursing of Older Adults
1.5
TFH 3302
Theoretical Foundations of Health Care Ethics
The theoretical foundations of health care ethics including definitions of ethics, history of bioethics and nursing ethics, and the influence of religion,psychology of moral development and philosophy in the development of ethical theory. Nursing code of ethics, changing ideas in ethics, and discussion of the developing profession of nursing are included.
Fall or Spring
1 Course Unit
Theoretical Foundations of Health Care Ethics
1
First Year - Summer
NWI 2151
Nursing of Women and Infants
This course emphasizes the child-bearing cycle, and the related issues of maternal and infant mortality and morbidity. It also explores women and infant's health care and health promotion needs across the lifespan. It provides a global perspective, and uses the United Nations' Pillars of Safe Motherhood and World Health Organization's Millennium Development Goals as the vehicles to enable students to understand the interrelationships among issues of health and health promotion; social, economic, political and environmental contexts; and the care of women across the lifespan. Clinical experiences provide opportunities for students to understand the connections between the local and the global; to use their developing knowledge base to affect the health of women and their infants. Students will have opportunities for hospital-based care of child-bearing women and their infants. In addition, community-based experiences with individual women and with groups of women across the life cycle will be provided in order to enhance teaching, interviewing and assessment skills.
Spring
1.5 Course Unit
Nursing of Women and Infants
1.5
PN 2252
Pediatric Nursing
This course considers how nursing influences the health and healing capacities of infants, children, adolescents and their families. It focuses on the knowledge and skill acquisition needed to care for these patients at particular moments, across the continuum of care, and through transitions in an illness experience. It addresses pediatric nursing phenomena of concern and major final common pathways of pediatric illness from infancy through adolescence using a using a developmental and systems approach. Emphasis is placed on family-centered care through transitions in the illness and recovery phases. The course emphasizes clinical reasoning; family centered strategies for optimizing health and maintaining individuality; promoting optimal developmental, physiological, and psychological functioning; and enhancing strengths within the context of family. Clinical experiences at various children's hospitals and simulation experiences provide sufficient opportunities for clinical reasoning, clinical care and knowledge integration. Additional Prerequisite: Clinical 12 hours weekly and 2 hours Simulated Laboratory Weekly
Fall or Spring
1.5 Course Unit
Pediatric Nursing
1.5
PBM 2351
Psychiatric, Behavioral, and Mental Health Nursing
This course examines the influences of psychological, emtional, cognitive and social development of individuals and groups across the lifespan. Students combine this foundational knowledge with their developing understanding of social determinants of health. This course will help students learn to identify and assess individual, family and group level needs for those persons at risk for or experiencing behavioral or psychiatric/mental health challenges using evidence-based interventions applicable across the continuum of care. Emphasis is placed on the role of the professional nurse in assuring the delivery of equitable behavioral and pychiatric/mental health nursing care. The course addresses nursing phenomena of concern related the meanings of a behavioral or mental mental health illness and the development of healing relationships with individuals, families, and groups. In addition, the student will learn essential advanced communication strategies, including exposure to skills necessary for motivational interviewing, essential to engage individual and families in mental health promotion and treatment. This course provides the tools to enable students to construct effective interventions groups with patients, collaborate with disciplinary and inter-professional colleagues, and understand the healing dimensions of environments. Clinical and simulation experiences are designed to provide sufficient opportunities for clinical reasoning, clinical care, and clinically situated knowledge integration.
Fall
1.5 Course Unit
Psychiatric, Behavioral, and Mental Health Nursing
1.5
Second Year - Fall
PHN 3821
Public Health Nursing Care in Communities
This course considers how nursing influences the health and healing capacities of both communities as a whole (populations) and of groups, families, and individuals living within particular communities locally and globally. It addresses the complexity of nursing practice using a public health paradigm. It requires students to draw from prior class and clinical knowledge and skills and apply this practice base to communities across care settings, ages, and cultures with different experiences of equity and access to care. It provides the tools needed to engage in collaborative community work and to give voice to the community’s strengths, needs, and goals. It also moves students from an individual and family focus to a population focus for health assessment and intervention. Students consider the science, policies, and resources that support public health, and community based and community-oriented care. Clinical and simulated experiences in community settings provide sufficient opportunities for clinical reasoning, clinical care and knowledge integration in community settings. Students will have opportunities to care for patients and populations within selected communities.
Fall
1.5 Course Unit
Public Health Nursing Care in Communities
1.5
RIB 3891
Research/Inquiry-Based Service Residency
This course is designed to facilitate students' intellectual curiosity and independence in exploring the research process in an area of interest. Similar to clinical practica, NURS389 serves as the research practicum for NURS230 and NURS547. In this applied course, students will engage in a structured, hands-on faculty-mentored experience. Students will be contacted approximately 6-10 weeks prior to the start of the semester of enrollment to either: 1) submit a proposal to work on an existing project with an established mentor, or 2) identify their key areas of interest and select from an existing list of projects/preceptors that varies by semester. Students will be matched with a research preceptor based on their selections and, in collaboration with their preceptor, they will define learning objectives to guide their individualized plan of study. Students have opportunities to experience systematic methods for research, service-based clinical inquiry, or quality improvement. This mentored residency can be fulfilled by completing one of the following options: * Research-based practicum in basic or social science, clinical research, nursing history, healthcare policy, ethics, or informatics. * Inquiry-based Service practicum such as conducting quality improvement procedures or program evaluations in an affiliated healthcare institution. Students must register for both the lecture and recitation sections. For the recitation section students are expected, with the assistance of their advisor, to allocate 2 hours of work outside of class each week towards their project. Students can schedule this work based on their own schedule but must be prepared to complete the work each week. The course is taken in the final semester of the senior year.
Fall or Spring
.5 Course Units
Research/Inquiry-Based Service Residency
0.5
LXH 3902
Leadership in the Complex Healthcare System
This two-part course provides the didactic and clinical experiences in increasingly complex nursing care situations and environments which facilitate the students' transition to independent practice. In the lecture component, the focus is on the integration of knowledge and skill for nursing practice and develops the ability of students to see nursing practice as part of a complex system. It examines systems thinking and complexity, development of a leadership role and skills, inter-professional communication and teamwork, and leading change in healthcare organizations. This course also examines the nurse's role in improvement science and patient care delivery, focusing on quality improvement processes, patient safety, nurse sensitive process and outcome metrics with micro-systems. This course also allows students to develop the capacity for clinical expertise, leadership, and for translating the science of the profession into practice. Students also are assigned to a seminar component that is correlated with their selected site for the specialty clinical practicum. This aspect of the course allows the student to further develop leadership concepts learned in lecture while developing additional expertise in a specialty area of practice. These seminar components are adult health and illness, adult critical care, obstetrics/labor & delivery, and pediatrics. Advanced simulation experiences and extensive clinical practice in an area of the students' choice provide multiple opportunities to synthesize the multidimensional aspects of nursing and provide the environment which facilitates transition to professional nursing practice. Students select from a variety of settings in which to refine their practice skills. Principles of leadership, accountability and change will be applied to clinical practice as the student begins to operationalize the professional nursing role. Emphasis is placed on the nurse as a knowledgeable provider of health care who is both a change agent and advocate.
Fall or Spring
3 Course Units
Leadership in the Complex Healthcare System
3
Total Course Units
36
NOTES
- All plans of study are subject to curricular change. Students must consult with an academic advisor prior to making revisions to the plan of study to ensure that the necessary curricular requirements are being met and to prevent delays in academic progression.
- Clinical experiences may include evenings, weekends, and 12 hour shifts. Most clinical rotations are accessible by public transportation; however a car may be necessary for transportation to some clinical sites.
- Course work outside the School of Nursing is not permitted, with the exception of approved non-nursing courses for the Health Care Ethics and Health Policy requirements.
Curriculum
Baccalaureate Program Objectives Leveled by Year
The faculty has defined behaviors that each student must achieve before progressing to the next level. The objectives are leveled by year: level 1 references freshman year; level 2 references sophomore year, and so on. Students are encouraged to refer to these objectives at the mid-point of the semester and again at the end of the semester to actively participate in the learning and self-evaluation processes.
End of Program. Synthesize knowledge from the humanities and the natural and social sciences as the basis for continuing personal, intellectual, social, and professional development.
Level 1. Demonstrate knowledge of the interrelationship of the humanities and the natural and social sciences as a basis for the development of nursing practice and as a source of personal development.
End of Program. As a generalist, use theoretical and scientific bases for nursing to deliver nursing care to clients as individuals, families, communities, and organizations in a variety of settings at any level of wellness, illness, and risk.
Level 3. Apply theoretical and scientific bases for nursing practice related to individuals and families with potential or actual health-related problems in acute care settings.
Level 2. Demonstrate the use of theoretical and scientific bases for nursing practice related to risk assessment and health promotion activities to individuals within selected communities and healthcare agencies.
Level 1. Identify theoretical and scientific bases for nursing practice.
End of Program. Apply research findings to evaluate and improve nursing care and the healthcare system.
Level 3. Appraise the relevance, quality, and applicability of research in decision making related to patient care.
Level 2. Discuss the research implications for various nursing practice environments.
Level 1. Recognize the relationship between research and nursing practice.
End of Program. Assume responsibility for providing nursing care in a collaborative relationship with individuals and groups in a variety of settings.
Level 3. Participate in providing nursing care in a collaborative relationship with individuals and families in complex healthcare settings.
Level 2. Participate in providing nursing care in a collaborative relationship with individuals, selected communities, and healthcare agencies.
Level 1. Observe the process of how nurses collaborate with individuals.
End of Program. Participate in collaborative relationships with colleagues through referral, consultation, planning, and evaluation.
Level 3. Initiate a collaborative relationship with colleagues to facilitate consultation, referrals, planning, and evaluation in a complex healthcare setting.
Level 2. Participate in a collaborative relationship with colleagues by consultation, planning, and evaluating selected communities and healthcare agencies.
Level 1. Identify various interdisciplinary roles in healthcare.
End of Program. Demonstrate leadership and management skills through direction and support of clients and colleagues as individuals, families, communities, and organizations.
Level 3. Integrate an understanding of leadership and management skills through the direction and support of colleagues, individuals, and families in acute care settings.
Level 2. Provide peer support and management of individual clients in selected communities and healthcare agencies.
Level 1. Define leadership and management skills using professional organizations as a model.
End of Program. Participate as an agent of change in scientific, social, and political action for the advancement of research, healthcare, and policy at any level from local to international.
Level 3. Initiate change for the advancement of research and healthcare in an acute care setting.
Level 2. Participate as an agent of change to effect modification in health promotion behavior and level of wellness in selected local communities and healthcare agencies.
Level 1. Recognize the need for change related to healthcare reform and policymaking at the national level.
End of Program. Communicate coherently, comprehensively, and systematically in written and oral forms as they pertain to nursing care, collaboration, research, and policy.
Level 3. Analyze written and oral communication patterns and recommend modification if necessary as they pertain to nursing care, collaboration, and research.
Level 2. Demonstrate therapeutic and professional oral communication with individuals, groups, and peers in selected local communities and healthcare agencies.
Level 1. Demonstrate effective written communication skills.
End of Program. Perform clinical skills appropriate to generalist nursing practice, with competence and judgment within specific settings.
Level 3. Demonstrate advanced nursing skills with competence and judgment in acute care settings.
Level 2. Demonstrate and expected level of judgment in basic nursing skills in selected communities and healthcare agencies.
Level 1. Identify components of professional nursing practice.
BSN Undergraduate Curriculum Organizing Framework and Vision
Class of 2015 and Beyond (Accelerated BSN Class of December 2014 and Beyond)
Learn more about NVU Nursing's mission, vision, and values
NVU’S baccalaureate curriculum brings structure to the School’s mission, vision, and values by centering on the primacy of nursing practice situated in caring relationships that facilitate health and healing. The baccalaureate curriculum builds on this conceptualization of nursing as it moves students toward increasingly contextualized understandings of individuals, families, communities, and populations living with health and illness. It also moves students into increasingly complex situations and care environments as they experience the dynamic nature of nursing’s embeddedness in health care systems, social structures, and society.
The baccalaureate curriculum concentrates on four intersecting core themes that characterize the complex and contextual nature of nursing practice: engagement, inquiry, judgment, and voice. The competencies derived from this framework are not intended to be achieved in a sequential manner. Rather, this framework explicates competencies that are fluid, adapt to various learning experiences when presented in the curriculum, and essential to the formation of a graduate nurse’s professional identity. The application of these themes is demonstrated in the following examples:
Engagement: The student understands the relationships among:
- Caring relationships with individuals, families, and patient populations
- Collegial intra-disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary collaborative relationships
- Observer and participant in policies and politics
- Situational advocacy and civic commitment to social and political change
Inquiry: The student understands the relationships among:
- Knowledge use, acquisition, and development
- Scientific ways of knowing patients and families and multi-dimensional and contextual ways of knowing
- Knowledge and implementation of humanistic understandings in practice and research
- Evidence-based practices and the social and political processes of practice with less clear scientific rationales
- Knowledge of how to use and manipulate technological information systems to acquire meaningful data
- Knowledge use and ongoing clinical knowledge development
- Measures of quality in clinical care environments
Judgment: The student understands the relationships among:
- Acquisition of knowledge and skill and the integration of both within relational practices with individuals, families, communities, populations, and healthcare systems
- Knowledge of individuals and families and collective knowledge about communities, populations, and systems
- Core nursing knowledge and integrated knowledge
- Situated judgment and clinical know-how
Voice: The student understands the relationships among:
- Observer, advocate, and moral agent
- Facilitation of patient and family learning and advocacy affecting social and political practices
- Informal methods of dialogue, discourse, and debate and those necessary for formal writing and publication and for joining a community of scholars
- Vision for self and the profession
Requirements for the Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degree
Non-Nursing Major Requirements
5
Critical Writing Seminar Requirement
Language Requirement
Distribution Requirements by Sector
6
Arts and Letters
Society and Social Structures
Histories and Traditions
Global and Cultural Studies
Reasoning, Systems, and Relationships
Free Elective
Nursing Major
29.5
Total Course Units
40.5
Minors
BSN students are also eligible to complete no more than half of an MSN minor while enrolled as an undergraduate student. For more information, visit.
Health Communications, Minor
The Health Communication minor is a collaboration between the School of Nursing and the Annenberg School for Communication. This program expands students’ knowledge of the communication process, theory, and behavior, and it prepares them for roles as professionals who develop cutting edge models for health behavior intervention or implement patient education and health communications programs locally, nationally, and globally.
For more information: https://newvisionuniversity.us/contacto/
Health Communications Minor requires a total of 6.5 course units. You must select 3 courses from Nursing and 3 courses from Communication.
Nursing Courses
3.5
PSD 1032
Psychological and Social Diversity in Health and Wellness
This course explores and integrates the intersection of psychological, cognitive, and social development with the lived experiences of individuals, families, and communities across the lifespan in order to conduct socially contextualized health assessments and health teaching. Extant theories will be critically analyzed and examined with respect to issues of health care access, health history, health promotion, and issues of equity and diversity from a life-course perspective. This knowledge will be synthesized and integrated with the development of the student's communication skills and interviewing processes necessary to develop socially attuned health history and teaching that promote psychological well being and healthy lifestyles. Simulated and observational experiences provide students with opportunities to acquire and apply knowledge necessary for conducting a comprehensive health history of an individual situated within a diverse community. They also provide opportunities to develop prioritized health teaching plans in partnership with that individual.
Fall
1 Course Unit
Psychological and Social Diversity in Health and Wellness
PBM 2351
Psychiatric, Behavioral, and Mental Health Nursing
This course examines the influences of psychological, emtional, cognitive and social development of individuals and groups across the lifespan. Students combine this foundational knowledge with their developing understanding of social determinants of health. This course will help students learn to identify and assess individual, family and group level needs for those persons at risk for or experiencing behavioral or psychiatric/mental health challenges using evidence-based interventions applicable across the continuum of care. Emphasis is placed on the role of the professional nurse in assuring the delivery of equitable behavioral and pychiatric/mental health nursing care. The course addresses nursing phenomena of concern related the meanings of a behavioral or mental mental health illness and the development of healing relationships with individuals, families, and groups. In addition, the student will learn essential advanced communication strategies, including exposure to skills necessary for motivational interviewing, essential to engage individual and families in mental health promotion and treatment. This course provides the tools to enable students to construct effective interventions groups with patients, collaborate with disciplinary and inter-professional colleagues, and understand the healing dimensions of environments. Clinical and simulation experiences are designed to provide sufficient opportunities for clinical reasoning, clinical care, and clinically situated knowledge integration.
Fall
1.5 Course Unit
Psychiatric, Behavioral, and Mental Health Nursing
Choose one of the courses below:
HCD 3532
Health Communication in the Digital Age
Health communication spans activities from in-person communication to technology based interventions and mass media campaigns. Health communication interventions are applied across a variety of health promotion and disease prevention activities. In this course, we will explore a variety of approachesto using communication strategies to improve individual and population health. The course will provide an introduction to the theory, design, and evaluation of health communication programs. We will review and critique several health communication interventions. The course will also include a special emphasis on new media and technology, as well as developing practical skills for developing health communication programs.
1 Course Unit
Health Communication in the Digital Age
IHW 3201
Designing to Care: Improving Health and Wellness (SNF Padeia Program Course)
Designing to Care is informed by ideas and skills from across the disciplines of design, nursing, and health research. As an interdisciplinary and project-based course, it actively examines the connection between the design of healthcare, how we communicate health strategies, and the impact of both on individual, institutional, and community wellbeing. Through this course, students are exposed to the content (evidence, research, and misconceptions) and the context (people, places, and systems) that impact health as we generate compelling human-centered design and science-based strategies that can impact the lives of those who live within and beyond our local Philadelphia community. It culminates in the ideation, development, and realization of a collaborative project that strategically communicates, educates, or otherwise works to improve health at the individual, institutional, or community level. The course includes direct, project engagement and guest lectures from healthcare, design, communication, and health research professionals. It incorporates targeted skill building and software training, individual and group activities, class conversations and critiques, and community engagement. From this foundation, the goal is to create real, implementable, and innovative solutions to health and healthcare challenges that embody design in action.
1 Course Unit
Designing to Care: Improving Health and Wellness (SNF Padeia Program Course)
SPC 2763
How We Change: Social-Psychological and Communication Dynamics (SNF Paideia Program Course)
Have you wondered why people undergo religious conversion, change their political affiliation, suddenly endorse conspiracy theories, alter their taste in music, or seek hypnosis to quit smoking? What is common to these processes of change, and how does resistance to change play out across these seemingly different contexts? In "Why We Change," we will ask unique questions such as how religious change might highlight methods of transforming public health communications or how the study of attitude change might yield new theories about the impact of life experiences on personality. Broadly speaking, the class will provide an opportunity for students to learn theories of belief formation, attitudes and persuasion, normative influence, and behavioral change. For example, we will work to understand how specific beliefs, such as group stereotypes, or specific attitudes, such as trust and values, change in response to variations in the environment and communication with other people. We will cover culturally based and professional approaches to change, from fear appeals to motivational interviewing, to hypnosis. Students will read empirical studies and conduct observational projects about potential sources of social, cultural, or psychological change and resistance to change in Philadelphia.
1 Course Unit
How We Change: Social-Psychological and Communication Dynamics (SNF Paideia Program Course)
Communications Courses
3
Choose 3CU from the courses below:
QRM 2101
uantitative Research Methods in Communication
This course is a general overview of the important components of social research. The goal of the course is to understand the logic behind social science research, be able to view research with a critical eye and to engage in the production of research. It will cover defining research problems, research design, assessing research quality, sampling, measurement, and causal inference. The statistical methods covered will include descriptive and inferential statistics, measures of association for categorical and continuous variables, inferences about means, and the basic language of data analysis. Course activities will include lectures, class exercises, reading published scientific articles, using statistical software, and discussing research featured in the news.
Fall or Spring
1 Course Unit
Quantitative Research Methods in Communication
CM 2251
Children and Media
This course examines children's relationships to media in their historic, economic, political, and social contexts. The class explores the ways in which "childhood" is created and understood as a time of life that is qualitatively unique and socially constructed over time. It continues with a review of various theories of child development as they inform children's relationships with and understanding of media. It reviews public policies designed to empower parents and limit children's exposure to potentially problematic media content and simultaneously considers the economic forces that shape what children see and buy. The course also provides a critical examination of research on the impact of media on children's physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development. Students in this course produce a proposal for an educational children’s media product as their final project.
Fall
1 Course Unit
Children and Media
CP 2752
Communication and Persuasion
This course examines theory, research, and application in the persuasive effects of communication in social and mass contexts. The primary focus will be on the effects of messages on attitudes, opinions, values, and behaviors. Applications include political, commercial, and public service advertising, propaganda, and communication campaigns (e.g. anti-smoking). Students will develop their own communication campaign over the semester. The campaign will include dentifying and analyzing the persuasion problem, the target audience's characteristics and media habits, and then reating a persuasive message consistent with research and practice targeted to the problem and its solution.
Not Offered Every Year
1 Course Unit
Communication and Persuasion
CRE 3102
The Communication Research Experience
In this hands-on course students will work with active researchers in the Communication Neuroscience lab at Penn to gain experience in how research works. Students will have the opportunity to interact closely with a mentor and will gain experience conceptualizing research questions, designing experiments, and collecting and analyzing data.
Not Offered Every Year
1 Course Unit
The Communication Research Experience
AM 3453
Adolescence and Media
How are adolescents represented in media and what effects do these portrayals have on developing teens? What makes adolescents a "jackpot market" to be targeted by advertising and how can they be swayed by mediated public health efforts to encourage health-promoting behaviors? Finally, what does the increasingly mediated nature of everyday life mean for adolescents, their friends, and their families during their journey into adulthood? We will explore these questions by reading key empirical studies and by critically analyzing film, music, and public service announcements portraying and/or targeting adolescents from the 1950s to the present day.
Not Offered Every Year
1 Course Unit
Adolescence and Media
USN 4071
Understanding Social Networks
Digital technologies have made communication networks ubiquitous: even when we can't really notice them, they mediate most aspects of our daily activities. Networks, however, have always been the backbone of social life: long before Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, or other similar platforms, communication created channels for information diffusion that linked people in myriad other ways. Through letters, commerce, or simply face to face interactions, people have always been exposed to the behavior of others. These communicative ties embed us into an invisible web of influence that we can make tangible and analyze. This course will teach you how to map those connections in the form of networks, and how to study those networks so that we can improve our understanding of social life. The goal is to help you grasp the consequences of connectivity, and how small changes in the structure of our ties can lead to big differences in how networks behave.
Not Offered Every Year
1 Course Unit
Understanding Social Networks
DI 4321
Digital Inequalities
Digital information and communication technologies are intertwined with our everyday lives, from banking, to working, and dating. They're also increasingly crucial parts of our most powerful institutions, from policing, to the welfare state, and education. This course examines the ways that these technologies combine with traditional axes of inequality like race, gender, and class in ways that may deepen social inequality. We'll consider major approaches to understanding digital inequalities and apply them to case studies of both problems and solutions. Students will learn to critically analyze policies and programs from a variety of perspectives, and to evaluate the promise of digital technologies against their potential perils.
Fall
1 Course Unit
Digital Inequalities
ICB 1252
Introduction to Communication Behavior
This course introduces students to social science research regarding the influence of mediated communication on individual and collective attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Throughout the semester we explore the impacts of various types of mediated content (e.g., violence, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, politics and activism, health and wellbeing); genres (e.g., news, entertainment, educational, marketing); and mediums (e.g., television, film, social media) on what we think and how we act. The aim of the course is to provide students with (1) a general understanding of both the positive and negative effects of mediated communication on people’s personal, professional, social, and civic lives; and (2) the basic conceptual tools needed to evaluate the assumptions, theories, methods, and empirical evidence supporting these presumed effects. Class meets twice a week as a lecture and once a week in smaller discussion groups led by graduate teaching fellows. In addition to a midterm exam and occasional short assignments, students have the option of producing a multi-media capstone project or a final term paper on a media-effects topic of their choice. Group projects or final papers are permitted, with approval of the instructor.
Spring
1 Course Unit
Introduction to Communication Behavior
MIS 1301
Media Industries and Society
The aim of this course is to prepare you to work in the media business as well as to be an informed citizen by acquainting you with the work and language of media practitioners. The class also investigates the exciting, and (to some employed there) scary changes taking place in the news industry, internet industry, advertising industry, television industry, movie industry, magazine industry, and several other areas of the media system. In doing that, the course ranges over economic, political, legal, historical, and cultural considerations that shape what we see when we go online, use social media, watch TV, read books, play video games, and more.
Spring
1 Course Unit
Media Industries and Society
Total Course Units
6.5
The degree and major requirements displayed are intended as a guide for students entering in the Fall of 2024 and later. Students should consult with their academic program regarding final certifications and requirements for graduation.
Global Health, Minor
The ever-growing threat of pandemics, terrorism, natural disasters, and climate-related challenges has sharpened the need for skilled nurses who understand the global interconnectedness of health. We need nurses who are experienced both clinically and culturally, who are ready to meet the rapidly-changing needs of patients, no matter where they live.
Available exclusively to NVU Nursing students at both the undergraduate and graduate level, our Global Health minor is an opportunity to increase your knowledge of the world and the factors that contribute to the health of populations. We take a cross-disciplinary approach to help you integrate your knowledge of nursing, culture, and diversity to more effectively engage with patients locally, nationally, and around the world.
For more information: https://newvisionuniversity.us/contacto/
The Global Health Minor requires a total of 6 course units.
Core Courses
SIH 5151
Sociocultural Influences on Health
This course is intended for students interested in U.S/Global Healthcare. It includes lectures, discussions, readings, and written assignments focused on various social, cultural, and economic factors that impact the health and illness perceptions and behaviors of various ethnic and minority groups. In particular, it focuses on how culture affects health and disease, and how health and disease affect culture. This course takes a critical approach to knowledge development by scrutinizing values, theories, assumptions, and practices cross culturally. It relies upon a range of interdisciplinary approaches to analyze how disease is diagnosed, treated, and experienced differently in various cultural contexts. At the same time, students will have the opportunity to examine and critique cultural assumptions and theories, the shifting nature of cultures, the situational use of cultural traditions, and the ethnocentrism of contemporary Western health care. Special attention is given to the influence of race, class, gender, religious, and spiritual ideas about health and illness.
Spring
1 Course Unit
Sociocultural Influences on Health
1
FGH 3271
Foundations of Global Health
This interdisciplinary course covers fundamental concepts of global and population health. Epidemiology and methodology, historical and contemporary contexts, physical (water, air, climate change, and food/nutrition) and social (health inequities, sex/reproduction, injury/violence) determinants of health, and interventions for health improvement are addressed. Health problems such as infectious and chronic diseases cannot be understood apart from history, economics, environment, and inequalities - they are not simply medical issues. Global Health refers not only to the health problems of "others" living in far corners of the world (low- and middle-income countries), but also to our own health problems as citizens of a very rich, but very unequal and multicultural nation. The aim of the course is to help students become more informed and active global citizens. Learning methods include faculty presentations, student presentations, and small group discussions. Although this course has a health focus, it is aimed at all students interested in global issues.
Fall
1 Course Unit
Foundations of Global Health
1
or FGH 5192
Foundations of Global Health
This course provides an introductory overview of global health, with the primary aim to engage and inspire students about the opportunities and challenges of global health. Using an interdisciplinary approach to global health with an emphasis on addressing both global and local health disparities, learning formats include case-based analysis, small group discussion, faculty presentations, panels, and debates. Using the lens of health equity, this course provides an overview of many current issues in global public health and frameworks to address them, including: measures of disease burden; frameworks for health equity and rights; determinants of health; environmental health and safe water; control of infectious diseases; non-communicable disease programs, nutritional challenges; harm reduction and behavioral modifications; women’s reproductive rights; health economics and cost-effective interventions; health manpower and capacity development; globalization challenges and potentials. At the completion of this course, the student will be able to: (1) understand that global health involves multiple academic disciplines, and identify many of these; (2) understand that global health theory involves many, sometimes conflicting, belief systems, and identify some of these; (3) understand that global health can be conceived as a complex ecosystem, which involves issues that are much broader than the traditional health disciplines; (4) cite examples of specific issues and case studies in global health; (5) understand some of the potential interventions that can be used to ameliorate problems in global health, particularly in low-income countries.
Fall
1 Course Unit
Foundations of Global Health
Select 1 Global Health Experiential course
1
Elective Courses
Select 3 course units 1
3
Total Course Units
6
The degree and major requirements displayed are intended as a guide for students entering in the Fall of 2024 and later. Students should consult with their academic program regarding final certifications and requirements for graduation.
History, Health and the Humanities, Minor
A number of universities have forged bridges between the humanities and sciences to nourish students intellectually, build self-awareness, consider social justice-related phenomena through a new lens, and help them develop empathy. The School of Nursing has launched a new minor in History, Health and the Humanities for undergraduate students. This innovative initiative provides students with the tools and perspectives to study clinical issues in ways different than the lens provided by natural or social sciences. It amplifies the humanities component of the Judgement, Inquiry, Voice, and Engagement pillars that define the “NVU Advantage.” It offers formalized opportunities for writing, both reflective and analytical, beyond that available in the required nursing curriculum.
Student enrolled in this minor will be considered Bates’ Center associates and will be invited to lunches, dinners, and other events with visiting scholars and faculty.
For more information: https://newvisionuniversity.us/contacto/
The History, Health and the Humanities Minor requires a total of 6 course units.
Core Courses
NMH 3051
Narrative Matters in Health and Illness Experiences
This course emphasizes the uses of narrative and memoir to consider major themes and events related to the experience of health and illness in the United States as well as the carative role, as either family member or health professional and crafting policy.
Spring
1 Course Unit
Narrative Matters in Health and Illness Experiences
1
Elective Courses
Select 5 course units 1
5
Total Course Units
6
The degree and major requirements displayed are intended as a guide for students entering in the Fall of 2023 and later. Students should consult with their academic program regarding final certifications and requirements for graduation.
Nursing and Health Services Management, Minor
The delivery of health care increasingly involves decisions that entail considerations beyond clinical or medical issues. With the rise of managed care in the United States, it is critical for health professionals to understand not only the clinical factors that affect patients but also the business environment in which healthcare institutions function. This program, a partnership between the School of Nursing and The Wharton School, helps students understand both the nature of the economic and managerial constraints that healthcare organizations face, and how to effectively manage these constraints to provide the best possible health care for patients.
For more information: https://newvisionuniversity.us/contacto/
The Nursing and Health Services Management Minor requires a total of 8 course units.
Economics
IME 0101
Introduction to Micro Economics
Introduction to economic analysis and its application. Theory of supply and demand, costs and revenues of the firm under perfect competition, monopoly and oligopoly, pricing of factors of production, income distribution, and theory of international trade. Econ 1 deals primarily with microeconomics.
Fall or Spring
1 Course Unit
Introduction to Micro Economics
1
or IEB 1002
Introductory Economics for Business Students
Microeconomics is the study of the behavior of households and firms, whose collective decisions determine how resources are allocated in a free market economy. We will study when markets are likely to produce "efficient" outcomes, and when government intervention may improve on or harm the competitive market outcome. We will use economic theory to analyze issues like a gas tax to change reliance on oil, minimum wages to increase salaries of the working poor, and government subsidies to increase education. Macroeconomics is the study of the economy as a whole. We will understand how the size of the US economy is determined, how unemployment is measured, how inflation affects life. We will look at policy options that the government and the Federal Reserve Bank face, and discuss pros and cons of their actions. Economic arguments are often used in debates about government policies, discussion of business strategies, and many of life's other arenas. The goal of the course is to teach you to "think like an economist," which I hope will help you to understand the world around you, make better economic decisions in your own life, and be a more informed citizen and voter.
Fall
1 Course Unit
Introductory Economics for Business Students
Elective Classes from Wharton
Select 2 course units of Elective Classes from Wharton 1
2
Elective Classes from Nursing
Select 2 course units of Elective Classes from Nursing 1
2
Additional Nursing & Health Services Management Electives
Select 3 course units of Additional Nursing & Health Services Management Electives 1
3
Total Course Units
8
The degree and major requirements displayed are intended as a guide for students entering in the Fall of 2024 and later. Students should consult with their academic program regarding final certifications and requirements for graduation.
Nutrition, Minor
Jointly sponsored by the Schools of Nursing and Arts and Sciences, the Nutrition Minor presents a broad view of the field and illustrates the pervasiveness of nutrition-related issues in such diverse fields as anthropology, economics, folklore, history, physiology, psychology, health care, and public policy.
For more information: https://newvisionuniversity.us/contacto/
The Nutrition Minor requires a total of 6 course units.
Minor Requirements
Core Courses 1
Select 1 course unit from each Core A, B and C
Core A - Basic Nutrition:
FN 0061
Fundamentals of Nutrition
Essentials of normal nutrition and their relationships to the health of individuals and families. These concepts serve as a basis for the development of an understanding of the therapeutic application of dietary principles and the nurse's role and responsibility in this facet of patient care. Prerequisite: Equivalent Science Sequence Course if course prerequisites not met
Spring
1 Course Unit
Fundamentals of Nutrition
1
or NSA 1122
Nutrition: Science & Applications
An overview of the scientific foundations of nutrition. The focus is on the functions, food sources and metabolism of carbohydrate,fat, protein, vitamins and minerals. Effects of deficiency and excess are discussed and dietary recommendations for disease prevention are emphasized. Current issues and controversies are highlighted. Students will analyze their own dietary intakes and develop plans for future actions. Prerequisite: For Non-nursing Students
Fall or Spring
1 Course Unit
Nutrition: Science & Applications
Core B - Scientific Basis of Nutrition:
Select one of the following Options:
1
Option 1:
ICB 0063
Integrated Cell Biology and Microbiology with Recitation
Through didactic and recitation interactive learning, students will explore the major topics of cell biology and microbiology that are foundational for an understanding of normal and pathological cellular processes. Topics will include the brief study of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell structures and functions; the main biological molecules; membrane transport; cellular communications; the flow of genetic information; cell division; and cellular metabolism. The course will also examine the role of cells and microbes in human health and infectious diseases. It will include a description of the main types of microbes, how they are identified, their growth requirements, and the role of the immune system in controlling infections, the control of microbes, host-microbe interactions. The context of the recitation sessions allow students to apply knowledge of cell biology and microbiology for understanding of advanced processes like the cellular basis of cancer and infectious human infection diseases. This course will include special sessions from a clinical perspective in the various fields of medicine, microbiology, and immunology.
Fall
1 Course Unit
Integrated Cell Biology and Microbiology with Recitation
Option 2:
TBF 1012
The Biology of Food
This course will examine the ways in which humans manipulate - and have been manipulated by - the organisms we depend on for food, with particular emphasis on the biological factors that influence this interaction. The first part of the course will cover the biology, genetics, evolution, and breeding of cultivated plants and animals; the second part will concern the ecological, economic, and political factors that influence food production.
Spring, even numbered years only
1 Course Unit
The Biology of Food
IB 1013
Introduction to Biology A
General principles of biology focusing on the basic chemistry of life, cell biology, molecular biology, and genetics in all types of living organisms. Particular emphasis will be given to links between the fundamental processes covered and current challenges of humankind in the areas of energy, food, and health.
Fall or Spring
1.5 Course Unit
Introduction to Biology A
IBM 1122
ntroduction to Biology - The Molecular Biology of Life
An intensive introductory lecture course covering the cell, molecular biology, biochemistry, and the genetics of animals, bacteria, and viruses. This course is comparable to Biology 1101, but places greater emphasis on molecular mechanisms and experimental approaches. Particular attention is given to the ways in which modern cell biological and molecular genetic methods contribute to our understanding of evolutionary processes, the mechanistic basis of human disease, and recent biotechnological innovations.
1 Course Unit
Introduction to Biology - The Molecular Biology of Life
Core C - Advanced Nutrition:
ANM 5232
Advanced Nutrition: Molecular Basis of Nutrition
Essentials of nutritional biochemistry of macronutrient (protein, carbohydrate,lipid) metabolism from the molecular level to the level of the whole human organism. Linkages between energy and nitrogen balance and states of health anddisease are examined. Topics include energy metabolic pathways, nutrient transportation, nutrient catabolism, nutrient anabolism, body composition, and biomarkers.
1 Course Unit
Advanced Nutrition: Molecular Basis of Nutrition
1
or AHN 5241
Advanced Human Nutrition and Micronutrient Metabolism
Essentials of vitamin and mineral digestion, absorption, metabolism, and function in humans during states of health and disease are examined. Linkages between key vitamins and their function in biological systems, such as bone health, energy metabolism, hematopoetic function, and immune function, are explored in depth. Topics include pertinent research methodologies, biomarkers,deficiency and toxicity states, and requirements across the life cycle. Prerequisite: Special permission
1 Course Unit
Advanced Human Nutrition and Micronutrient Metabolism
Electives
Select 3 course units of Electives 2
1
Total Course Units
6
The degree and major requirements displayed are intended as a guide for students entering in the Fall of 2024 and later. Students should consult with their academic program regarding final certifications and requirements for graduation.
Academic Opportunities
NVU Nursing offers a wide variety of supplemental academic opportunities designed to enhance your academic experience and professional development.
For more information: https://newvisionuniversity.us/contacto/
Consejo de educación superior
The Benjamin Franklin Scholars (BFS) Program for Nursing seeks to foster the development of the next generation of nurse achievers – scholars, leaders, and researchers – through intellectual rigor, academic excellence, and outstanding achievements. Scholars are required to complete four Benjamin Franklin Seminars – small, intensive classes in a wide range of disciplines across the liberal arts and sciences – and a Capstone Honors course in the Nursing school.
Dual Degrees
We recognize the value of interdisciplinary learning, which is why student at all levels – undergraduate, masters, and doctoral – can pursue a dual degree with other schools across campus. Our Dual Degree page provides a complete listing of our approved programs.
Global Opportunities
NVU Nursing offers a variety of international experiences for students in the BSN and MSN programs, which range from short-term opportunities that focus on comparative healthcare in international contexts, to full-semester clinical experiences.
Hillman Scholars Program in Nursing Innovation
The Hillman Scholars Program in Nursing Innovation is an integrated BSN-to-PhD program designed to educate a new cadre of nurse scientists and leaders to develop innovative solutions in healthcare. The program is available for current NVU Nursing undergraduate students, as well as students applying to the Accelerated Second Degree BSN program.
Minors
NVU Nursing offers a variety of minors in such in-demand areas as global health, palliative care, health services management, and oncology. Adding a minor allows students to complement their major by diving more deeply into a specific area of inquiry.
Nutrition Major
Our Nutrition major is an interdisciplinary collaboration with NVU’s School of Arts & Sciences. You will study concepts like dietary behaviors and metabolism, as well as scientific approaches to the physiological roles of nutrients in the diet, from the cellular to human level.
Research Opportunities
Students have numerous opportunities to engage with research at NVU Nursing, whether that means participating in one of the school-supported research centers, applying for a prestigious fellowship through the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (CURF), or working one-on-one with a faculty mentor on a student-driven research project.
Submatriculation
One of the most popular options at NVU Nursing, submatriculation allows undergraduate students the opportunity to apply to a graduate program and begin coursework while completing the BSN degree. Students can apply to any of the MSN majors here at NVU Nursing, or to NVU Law.
School Policies
The majority of NVU Nursing policies can be found in the Policies and Procedures section of the Catalog.
For more information: https://newvisionuniversity.us/contacto/
- The curricula leading to degrees in nursing require students to engage in diverse and complex experiences directed to the practice, refinement and full acquisition of essential nursing competencies and functions. Unique combinations of cognitive, behavioral, sensory, communication, psychomotor, and communication abilities are required to perform these functions in a satisfactory manner and to consistently demonstrate these competencies. In addition to being essential to the successful completion of the requirements for the respective nursing degree, these competencies and functions are necessary to ensure the health and safety of patients, fellow students, faculty and other health care providers. This statement describes the minimum competencies and functions necessary for entrance to, continuation in, and graduation from the nursing degree programs of the School of Nursing at the University of Washington D.C. Candidates for nursing degrees must be able to meet these minimum standards with or without reasonable accommodation.
- This document serves as the official policy for student use of social media at the SON. These guidelines apply to all students creating or contributing to any kind of social media affiliated with the SON. Please check back periodically to make sure you’re up to date. We trust that you will adhere to these policies. If, for any reason an incident occurs that violates the policy, we expect you to bring it to our attention immediately so we can work together toward a resolution.
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The School of Nursing recognizes the importance of educating its students about the problems of substance abuse because this significant health risk, and in many cases, criminal matter, is unfortunately prevalent among healthcare providers. Aside from impacting upon the personal and psychological integrity of the abusers, substance abuse may significantly impact the ability of healthcare providers to administer safe, competent patient care. Recognizing that substance abuse is both a disease and a professional hazard, the School of Nursing has incorporated substance abuse topical content areas into its curriculum. The School of Nursing has likewise established this substance abuse policy.
This policy impacts upon and augments the student’s ability to maintain personal and professional integrity, and facilitates the student’s success both clinically and didactically. It promotes a healthy learning environment for the student. In the clinical setting, this policy enhances patient safety. It also fosters the development of professional nurses who are well educated about the prevalence and adverse outcomes of substance abuse.
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