Bachelor of Science in Nursing

Overview

   The Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree program prepares licensed registered nurses to assume a broad range of professional roles in a variety of settings. The program builds on prior educational experiences and integrates additional knowledge from the liberal arts and sciences to provide a sound basis for professional practice, graduate study and life-long learning. The graduate is prepared to integrate principles of management, education, and research into professional practice as a clinician, leader, manager, teacher, client advocate, and change agent.

BSN PROGRAM GOALS:

To prepare graduates:

1. To assume increasingly complex professional roles in a variety of settings by integrating upper division general education with discipline-specific course work.
2. To contribute to the continuum of patient care that reflects integration and synthesis of principles of management, education, and research.
3. Who are accountable for patient assessment, interventions, and outcomes.
4. Who can collaborate with other members of the health care team to improve the quality of health care for individuals, families, and the community.
5. For advanced education and to be committed to professional values, lifelong learning, scholarship, and community service.

PROGRAM PREREQUISITES - SEE ADMISSION POLICIES

Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) for RNs Admission Requirements

In addition to the Undergraduate Admission Criteria, criteria are considered when reviewing an application to the BSN program:

1. Graduation from a nursing program accredited by NLNAC. Applicants who have graduated from non-NLNAC accredited programs will be required to succesfully complete selected NLN Mobility Achievement Tests.
2. Current Missouri licensure as a registered nurse or license-eligible.*

* The admission status of license-eligible applicants is conditional pending proof of licensure.

Prerequisite General Education and Support Science Courses (30 credits)

Humanities (9 credits)

Nursing Credit from Diploma Programs

1. RNs entering the BSN program NLNAC-accredited ASN or Diploma programs may receive up to 36 credits in recognition of prior knowledge.
2. RNs who graduated from non-NLNAC accredited programs must successfully complete of three NLN Mobility Profile Achievement Tests (medical-surgical nursing, maternal-child nursing, and psychiatric nursing), Excelsior exams (previously Regents exams), and/or computer simulation exams. A maximum of 36 credits will be awarded following payment of posting fees.

Transfer credits: College credit earned in prerequisite courses may be applied toward the degree. College credit for prior learning in prerequisite course content areas for which no college credit was earned may be credited upon successful completion of CLEP, Excelsior, ACE, or PONSI evaluations; or Washington University departmental exams.

**Students who did not previously earn 12 college credits in Anatomy and Physiology and Microbiology may fulfill the 12 credit science requirement by taking other relevant science courses.

BSN CURRICULUM OVERVIEW

General Education and Support Science Courses (25 credits)

Humanities (6 credits)

BSN NURSING COURSES (30 credits)

BSN Sample Full-Time Course Sequence

Junior Year

Senior Year

BSN NURSING COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

   For the BSN program, one unit of credit is assigned for 16 instructional periods of 50 minutes each. For clinical practica, one unit of credit is equal to 16 contact hours.

NUR 3110 - Concepts for Professional Nursing and Health
3 credit hours (3 didactic/0 practicum)
May be taken concurrently with NUR 2920.
Provides the philosophical basis for baccalaureate nursing education. Theories of nursing and attitudes of the professional nurse, values clarification, professional ethics, and changing role and scope of practice are examined. Concepts of health promotion are studied and critical thinking is fostered. Designed to be the first course in the BSN curriculum.

HS 3130 - Therapeutic Nutrition
3 credit hours (3 didactic/0 practicum)
Examines the role of nutrients in health maintenance and clinical disease states. Emphasis is on the role of nutrients in improving health outcomes. Consideration is given to the interaction of foods with medications and food as a therapeutic agent in various cultures.

HS 3131 - Health Care Values & Ethics
3 credit hours (3 didactic/0 practicum)
Provides basic knowledge and skills in recognizing ethical issues in health care. Professional moral development, moral reasoning and relevant ethical principles and theories are emphasized. Examines the formation of personal and institutional value systems as they influence the delivery of health care.

NUR 3310 - Health Assessment Across the Life Span
3 credit hours (1 didactic/2 laboratory)
May be taken concurrently with NUR 2920.
Provides knowledge and skills necessary to perform a complete health assessment of culturally diverse individuals of various ages. Clinical experience focuses on the performance of health assessments. Students utilize a holistic approach as they develop tools for carrying out the nursing process in their own practice settings. The health assessment process provides an excellent foundation for the student to master approaches to interviewing techniques, history taking and physical assessment skills in the laboratory setting.

HS 3321 - Pathophysiology
4 credit hours (4 didactic/0 practicum)
Prerequisites: U29-120, U29-121, U29-130, or permission of instructor
Principles of alterations in structure and function of major organ systems are discussed. Emphasis on understanding how abnormal function and processes disrupt human cellular, tissue, organ and system processes. Cross-listed with U29-321.

HS 3333 - Statistics
3 credit hours (3 didactic/0 practicum)
Provides basic understanding of fundamental statistical methods used in experimental and associated research studies, with the primary purpose of gaining a conceptual understanding of how statistical methods can be chosen to answer specific research questions.

HS 3520 - Leadership and Management
3 credit hours (3 didactic/0 practicum)
Examines theories of leadership, management and organization as applied to health care practice. Health care economics, political issues and health care systems are investigated within a systems theory framework. Clinical experience includes observational experiences with a preceptor in a clinical?practice setting to develop leadership management and skills.

NUR 4445 - Nursing of Families
3 credit hours (3 didactic/0 practicum)
Concepts from nursing and other relevant theories and research are applied to traditional and non?traditional family constellations. Explores factors such as culture and ethnicity that affect family health practices and responses to illness. Emphasizes the nurse's role in promoting family well-being.

HS 4510 - Research Methods in Nursing and Allied Health
3 credit hours (3 didactic/0 practicum)
Develops an understanding of the research process as applied to professional health care practice. The value and purpose of research within an ethical/legal context are explored. Qualitative and quantitative research methods and approaches to solving health care problems are examined. Students are actively involved in evaluating, critically analyzing and interpreting data to determine implications for practice.

NUR 4602 - Concepts of Critical Care
2 credit hours (2 theory)
Prerequisites: U29-120, U29-121, NUR 1600, NUR 1800, NUR 2110, or consent of instructor.
Specific concepts and theories of critical care are integrated with knowledge and skills from basic and upper division liberal arts, support science, and discipline-specific courses to provide quality care to clients and their families. Specific concepts and theories of critical care are presented. The special needs of the critical care client are analyzed. The integral relationship of health team members and the critical care client and family are examined.

NUR 4710 - Community Health Concepts and Assessment
3 credit hours (3 didactic/0 practicum)
Prerequisites: NUR 3110, NUR3310r
Provides theories and concepts related to community health care. Examines historical, socioeconomic, political and legislative processes which influence community health practice. Integrates concepts of epidemiology and research methodology in conducting a community assessment. Plans strategies to facilitate health maintenance and promotion of the community as client.

NUR 4730 - Health Promotion in the Community
3 credit hours (1 didactic/2 practicum)
Prerequisite: NUR 4710 and RN licensure.
Emphasis is on the role of the professional nurse in assessing, planning, intervening and evaluating strategies to facilitate health maintenance and promotion for culturally diverse individuals, families, aggregates and communities. The clinical experience provides opportunities to use the nursing process in a variety of community settings to promote the health of individuals and communities. Same as NUR 4720.

HS 4800G - Special Topic: Pain Management
2 or 3 credit hours (2/3 didactic/0 practicum)
Prerequisites: U29-121, NUR 1230.
Introduces the student to the pain phenomena, theories, mechanisms and treatments, both pharmacological and non-pharmacological. Techniques of assessment of people in acute or chronic pain, safe and effective use of analgesics, and discussion of clinical practice guidelines for pain control will be emphasized. Personal, social and cultural factors that influence pain perception will be discussed. Ethical and legal considerations of pain management will be addressed.

HS 4800I - Special Topic: Perioperative Nursing
4 credit hours (2 didactic/2 practicum)
Prerequisites: U29-1201, U29-1202, NUR 1230, HS 1330, or RN licensure, or permission of instructor.
Designed to enable the student to participate (with supervision) in the professional and technical components of perioperative nursing practice. Emphasis is placed on the use of the nursing process when caring for patients undergoing the stress of surgery during the preoperative, intra-operative, and post-operative phase. Students participate as members of the surgical team in the circulating, scrub, and recovery room nurse's role.

NUR 4900 - Focused Clinical Practicum
4 credit hours (2 didactic/2 practicum)
Prerequisites: All BSN nursing courses, RN licensure
Provides the opportunity to develop specialty-focus knowledge and skills in a student-selected clinical area of interest. Knowledge and skills from basic and upper division general education and nursing disciplines are integrated when implementing increasingly complex roles to delivering quality nursing care to individuals and groups in a specialty-focused clinical area. Objectives for clinical are individualized and mutually agreed upon by the instructor and each student. Clinical experience provides the opportunity to participate in a mentoring relationship with an experienced colleague in a specialty-focused clinical area and the opportunity to develop competence in increasingly complex nursing roles.

HS 4920 - Transcultural Health Care
2 credit hours (2 didactic/0 practicum)
Explores theoretical and conceptual aspects of international and cross?cultural health care. Topics covered include culture and ethnicity; cross?cultural communication, beliefs and values; cultural variations in response to actual or potential problems of health or illness; review of research literature; and methods for caring and treating culturally influenced responses.

HS 4925 - Women's Health Issues: Violence and Abuse
2 credit hours (2 didactic/0 practicum)
Examines the sociocultural implications of violence within social relationships. Particular emphasis placed on patterns of abuse and its effect on women and women's health. Services within the community responses of the justice system are examined and analyzed. Examines the health care provider's role in primary, secondary and tertiary level interventions.

HS 4930 - Home Health Care of Clients and Families
2 credit hours (1 didactic/1 practicum)
Prerequisites: NUR 3310, NUR 3321, and RN licensure
Compares and contrasts home health care with hospital nursing care of clients and families. Examines the dynamics and logistics of home health visits in the context of patients rights and responsibilities.

HS 4950 - Promoting Quality Care at the End of Life
3 credit hours (3 didactic/0 practicum)
Explores the principles of end-of-life care. These principles are based on the assumptions that individuals live until the moment of death, that care until death may be offered by a variety of health care professionals, that care is coordinated and sensitive to diversity, and that death can be experienced as a stage of growth. End-of-life care gives attention to the physical, psychological, social and spiritual concerns of the patient and the patient's family. Loss and bereavement also are explored as they affect the patient, the family and other care givers.

NUR 4999 - Independent Study
1-6 credit hours (Variable didactic or practicum)
Self?directed learning in a topical area not offered during the enrollment period or to augment prior learning. Requires plan of study that includes development of a course description, objectives, learning activities and framework for meeting course objectives. Both the Program Director and supervising faculty member must approve plan of study.