Nursing

Course Code	NURS 270  Credits 9
Title	Health Promotion and the Role of the Professional Nurse
Course Outline	Course Outline
Description	This course introduces the student to the role of the professional nurse. The emphasis on health promotion across the lifespan includes learning about self-health, as well as holistic client health practices. Students learn to access and apply research evidence to guide safe preventative care. The student will incorporate communication and growth and development theory in a caring and culturally sensitive manner. The student will work as an ethical member of multi-disciplinary teams giving and receiving feedback about performance and use reflective thinking about their practice. Within the context of the nursing process, populations studied will include children, adults, older adults and the family experiencing a normal pregnancy.

Course Code	NURS 272  Credits 4
Title	Transition to the Role of the Professional Nurse
Course Outline	Course Outline
Description	This course is designed to expand the knowledge and skills of the LPN as they transition to the professional role within nursing. Emphasis is placed on health promotion through the lifespan and incorporates theories related to evidence-based practice, quality and safety, communication, collaboration, clinical decision-making/reasoning, informatics, assessment, caring, and health- illness continuum.

Course Code	NURS 275  Credits 2
Title	Nutrition and the Role of the Professional Nurse
Course Outline	Course Outline
Description	This course introduces the student to the role of the nurse in promoting and supporting nutritional health. Emphasis is on the role nutrition plays in health promotion/prevention of illness, recovery from acute illness and/or management of chronic illness. Students learn to access evidence to support healthy nutritional choices that reduce risk factors for disease and/or illness across the lifespan. Students explore how culture, ethnicity, socio-economic status, nutritional trends and controversies, and integrative therapies influence the nutritional health of the client.

Course Code	NURS 280  Credits 7
Title	Chronic & Palliative Care
Prerequisite	NURS 270 OR NURS 272 AND NURS 275
Course Outline	Course Outline
Description	This course focuses on the nursing care of clients experiencing chronic illness and/or end of life. Emphasis is placed on understanding the “lived experience” of clients and families. Ethical issues related to advocacy, self- determination, and autonomy are explored. Evidence-based practice is used to support appropriate focused assessments and management of care of clients experiencing concurrent illnesses/co-morbidities.

Course Code	NURS 282  Credits 3
Title	Pharmacology and the Role of the Professional Nurse
Prerequisite	NURS 270 OR NURS 272 AND NURS 275
Course Outline	Course Outline
Description	This course introduces theoretical concepts that enable students to provide safe and effective care related to pharmaceuticals and natural products to diverse clients across the lifespan. A framework is presented for approaching the study of pharmacotherapeutics including pharmaceutical research and regulation, quality and safety, major drug classifications, and clinical management.

Course Code	NURS 285  Credits 2
Title	Applied Pathophysiology for Nursing I
Prerequisite	NURS 270 OR NURS 272 AND NURS 275
Course Outline	Course Outline
Description	This course introduces a holistic perspective of pathophysiological processes and the disruption in normal body function. Emphasis will be on objective and subjective manifestations of common chronic health problems resulting from environmental, genetic, and stress-related maladaptations to provide a foundation for nursing care. This course complements selected topics addressed in Chronicity and End of Life to provide a comprehensive understanding of disease processes.

Course Code	NURS 301  Credits 4
Title	Transitions
Course Outline	Course Outline
Writing Intensive	Yes
Description	As the first course for RNs who are pursuing a baccalaureate degree, this course provides an overview of the evolution of nursing as a profession. Students are oriented to the role of being scholar-clinicians. The course supports an evolving professional identity and examines major issues and trends in contemporary nursing. Students will explore critical abilities in professional practice such effective communication, working in groups, teaching-learning, and more. The prevailing focus of analysis is quality and safety for the care of individuals, groups, and families. This course is a prerequisite for all other courses in the nursing major for RN-BSN students.

Course Code	NURS 303  Credits 4
Title	Holistic Family Nursing
Prerequisite	NURS 301 if not co-enrolled
Course Outline	Course Outline
Description	This course emphasizes nursing care of the diverse family unit across life stages and care settings. Family focused care that is theory driven and evidence informed guides students in developing holistic, health promoting, culturally sensitive approaches to care. In addition, promotion of critical thinking and effective, therapeutic communication and collaborative practices are emphasized in the care of families.

Course Code	NURS 318  Credits 3
Title	Nursing Ethics
Course Outline	Course Outline
Description	This course is designed to assist students in the exploration and recognition of ethical issues within the profession of nursing. Students will gain knowledge and gain critical thinking skills through that application of ethical theories and paralleling of situations to various benchmarks within the nursing profession (i.e. Association of American College's of Nursing Baccalaureate Essentials, Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program Outcomes, American Nurses Association Code of Ethics, Minnesota Board of Nursing Scope of Practice).

Course Code	NURS 342  Credits 3
Title	Interdisciplinary Care of Diverse Populations
Lasc Area	Goal 7
Course Outline	Course Outline
Description	This course supports all future members of the healthcare team in learning how to have an impact on the profound disparities in health status and healthcare of diverse populations through a multidisciplinary approach. Students will examine the definitions of culture and diversity while exploring the ways that these two concepts intersect with health issues. The focus is that healthcare professionals are committed to advocating for safe quality care to all, congruent with the tenets of social justice, human rights, and bound to ethical care for all. MnTC Goal 7

Course Code	NURS 348L  Credits 4
Title	Public Health Nursing
Prerequisite	NURS 301 pre-req or taken concurrently
Course Outline	Course Outline
Description	This on-line course combines the theory base with clinical experiences in nursing care to complex systems and aggregates in the community. Emphasis is placed on the promotion, maintenance and restoration of health and wellness and the prevention of disease.

Course Code	NURS 352  Credits 3
Title	End of Life Nursing Care
Course Outline	Course Outline
Description	This on-line course addresses critical aspects of palliative end-of-life nursing care. The course is based on the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) curriculum.

Course Code	NURS 354  Credits 3
Title	Integrative Nursing
Course Outline	Course Outline
Description	This course focuses on core concepts and principles of integrative nursing care to optimize health and well-being of self, persons, organizations, and communities. Integrative nursing interventions, integrative therapies, and applications are examined to manage a variety of common symptoms, promote health, and create optimal healing environments across care settings and populations. Students evaluate evidence, theoretical principles, and strategies related to integrative therapies to implement appropriate approaches to clinical practice and self-care. In the course, students experience practical applications to enhance well-being. Finally, global perspectives related to integrative nursing are explored.

Course Code	NURS 361  Credits 7
Title	Acute and Complex Care
Prerequisite	NURS 280 NURS 282 NURS 285
Course Outline	Course Outline
Description	This course focuses on the nursing care of clients experiencing acute disruptions of health and/or end of life issues. Emphasis is placed on understanding and application of theory and skills required to provide nursing care to clients with complex and/or unstable conditions. Evidence-based practice is used to support appropriate focused assessments, and effective, efficient nursing interventions. Knowledge of life span, developmental factors, cultural variables and legal aspects of care guide the ethical decision making in delivery of care.

Course Code	NURS 362  Credits 2
Title	Applied Pathophysiology for Nursing II
Prerequisite	NURS 280 NURS 285 NURS 282
Course Outline	Course Outline
Description	This course will facilitate ongoing critical thinking and analysis of pathophysiological concepts. Emphasis will be on interpretation and prioritization of data resulting from environmental, genetic, and stress-related maladaptations. This course complements the selected topics addressed in Acute & Complex Care to provide a comprehensive understanding of disease processes.

Course Code	NURS 364  Credits 3
Title	Nursing Leadership I
Prerequisite	NURS 280 NURS 285 NURS 282
Course Outline	Course Outline
Description	This course focuses on prioritization, delegation, and supervision of nursing care of clients across the lifespan. Healthcare policy, finance, and regulatory environment issues are analyzed. Emphasis is on planning, collaborating and coordinating care for individuals and groups across the care continuum.

Course Code	NURS 370  Credits 4
Title	Nursing Research and Evidence-Based Practice
Prerequisite	NURS 301 (if not co-enrolled)
Course Outline	Course Outline
Description	This course is grounded in the translation of current evidence into best practice. The research process links nursing theory with clinical nursing practice for application within the larger healthcare system. Emphasis is placed on preparing students to retrieve, read and comprehend published research reports. A systematic approach to appraisal of research evidence is emphasized as a means of informing nurses’ clinical decision making and is incorporated into a research critique. Students develop an evidence based practice project as well as explore evidence-based practice models to facilitate implementation and dissemination.

Course Code	NURS 390  Credits 1-3
Title	Topics in Nursing
Course Outline	Course Outline
Description	This is a topical course and may be repeated when the topic varies.

Course Code	NURS 406  Credits 4
Title	Nursing Care of the Family
Prerequisite	NURS 361, NURS 362, NURS 364
Course Outline	Course Outline
Description	This course focuses on holistic nursing care of families across the lifespan. Emphasis is on application of multiple theories relevant to families experiencing transitions. Relationships between genetics and genomics to family health are discussed. Students provide care to families utilizing evidence-based nursing practices.

Course Code	NURS 420  Credits 3
Title	Gerontological Nursing to Promote Successful Aging
Prerequisite	NURS 301 and NURS 370
Course Outline	Course Outline
Description	This course explores the experience and challenges of aging from the perspective of the patient, the support system, the community, and the health care system. Factors and processes that are both contributors and barriers to successful aging and quality of life for older adults are identified. Various assessment tools and strategies for delivering evidence-based care will be considered that enhance quality of life for the older adult in both health and disease states.