Course Description - NURS 360

This is the first nursing course in the RN-BS Online Program. It is an intermediate seminar designed to assist registered nurses to develop the critical reading, thinking and writing skills necessary for successful university level study. Issues that significantly influence professional practice and nursing leadership are explored utilizing the above skills.

Course Title:              Professional Issues in Nursing
Course Credit:           Six

Course Objectives

• Demonstrate cognitive and technical skills that enhance learning, communication and research.
• Develop critical reading, thinking and writing skills.
• Analyze the historical and current events that affect nursing’s ongoing professional development.
• Describe the relationship among nursing theory, nursing research and nursing practice.
• Compare and contrast the different practice models of patient care delivery.
• Evaluate the strategies used for fiscal and humans resources that contribute to the   
  Organization’s ability to deliver quality cost-effective patient-centered care.

Prerequisites

Admission to the RN to BS program    

Required Textbook

American Psychological Association (2001). Publication manual of the American psychological association (5th ed.).  Washington, D.C.: Author.

                                   Or consider the software below

APA software is by Reference Point web site: http://www.referencepointsoftware.com

Joel, L.A. (2003). Kelly’s dimensions of professional nursing (9th  ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.

Marquis, B.L. & Huston, C. J. (2006). Leadership Roles and Management Functions in nursing: Theory & Application (5th ed.). Philadelphia:Lippincott.

Required Reading: The articles will be posted on the weekly content.

American Nurses Association. (Standards of clinical nursing practice. (2nd ed.).  Washington, D. C.: Author.

Christman, L. (1998). Who is a nurse? Image: Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 30, 211-214.

Douglas, R., & Brown, H. (2002). Patients' attitudes toward advanced directives. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 34(1).

Ketter, J. (1997).  Nurses and strikes: A perspective from the United States.  Nursing Ethics, 4, 323-329.

Oermann, M. H., & Templin, T. (2000). Important attributes of quality health care: Consumer perspectives. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 32(2), 167-172.

Robinson, J. (2002). Nursing is essential to improved patient safety. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 38(2), 109-112.

Schaefer, K. M. (2002).  Reflections on Caring Narratives: Enhancing patterns of knowing. Nursing Education Perspectives, 23(6), 286-293. 

Schwartz, K.B. (July 16, 1995). The patients’s story.  The Boston Globe Magazine. (reprint).

Shannon, S., Mitchell, P. H., & Cain, K. C. (2002).  Patients', nurses', and physicians' have differing views of quality of critical care. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 34(2), 173-179.

Other Reading

• Benner, P. E., Tanner, C.A., & Chesla, C.A. (1996).  Expertise in nursing practice: Caring, clinical judgment and ethics.  New York: Springer.

• Callahan, D. (1998). False hopes: Why America's quest for perfect health is a recipe for failure.  Washington, D.C.: Simon & Schuster.    

• Gordon, S. (1997).  Life support: Three nurses on the front lines. Boston: Little, Brown & Company.

• Greiner, A.C. & Knebel, E. (2003). Health professions education: A bridge to quality.  Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

• Hine, D. C. (1989).  Black women in white: Racial conflict and cooperation in the nursing profession, 1890-1950. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

• Nightingale, F. (1969). Notes on nursing: What it is and what it is not.   New York: Dover

• Weinberg, D. B. (2003). Code green. Ithaca, NT: Cornell University Press.

  Selected Electronic Resources
  

• [For additional details see: Nicoll, L. H. (2001).  Nurses' guide to the Internet.  (3rd ed.).  Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott [for sale at UMB Bookstore] or
  

• Hebda, T., Czar, P., & Mascara, C. (2001). Handbook of informatics for nurses and health care professionals. (2nd. ed.).  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall [not for sale at UMB Bookstore] 

Grading

• Component	Points
  Book Club Presentation	10
  Participation/Threaded Discussion	35
  APA Modules	10
  Papers:
  Multi-State Licensure	16
  Staffing Ratios	15
  Other Assinments	14
  Total	100 Pts.