Course

Family Health Promotion of Psychiatric Nursing Practice

Faculty
Health Sciences
Department
Nursing - Psychiatric
Course code
PNUR 3171
Credits
3.00
Semester length
15
Max class size
32
Method(s) of instruction
Online
Lecture
Course designation
None
Industry designation
None
Typically offered
To be determined

Overview

Course description
Using the Douglas College Psychiatric Nursing Conceptual Framework, students will be introduced to family nursing and the impact of health and illness on all family members, including family structure, function, and process. Students will explore theory and principles of psychiatric nursing care with families and recognize family nursing care models, assessment techniques, and variables that influence families and family nursing. Various family nursing roles are highlighted including promoting health and wellness, preventing illness risk, and managing both episodic and chronic health challenges. Students will apply a holistic approach to recognizing the uniqueness of every family system.
Course content
  • Family healthcare nursing
  • Family demographic shifts within Canada
  • Theoretical foundations of family nursing process
  • Family nursing assessment models
  • Family social policy and culturally sensitive nursing care of Canadian families
  • Psychiatric nursing care of LGBTQ families including the unique needs of families with gender nonconforming family members
  • Family mental health nursing care including both episodic and chronic mental health illness implications
  • Family health in mid and later life
  • Families with Palliative and end-of-life care needs
  • Psychiatric nursing care of families with trauma
  • Psychiatric nursing care of families experiencing substance use disorders
Learning activities

In this course, students engage in a variety of learning activities such as discussions, group work, case studies, reading assignments, and remote/virtual meetings. 

Means of assessment

The course evaluation is consistent with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy.  An evaluation schedule is presented at the beginning of the course in the Instructor Course Outline. This is a graded course.

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

  1. Discuss family nursing care practices and family health promotion;
  2. Identify and describe family nursing care theoretical foundations and major models;
  3. Recognize and discuss changing family demographics within Canada and the impact on healthcare;
  4. Examine the impact of both provincial and national legislation and policy in providing nursing care to families;
  5. Identify, discuss, and implement careplanning using principles of family nursing assessment and interventions; 
  6. Analyze the individual and holistic needs of diverse families across the health continuum and lifespan;
  7. Understand the impact of substance use disorders on family roles and family functioning.
Textbook materials

Textbooks and materials are to be purchased by students. A list of required and optional textbooks and materials is provided for students at the beginning of the semester. 

Requisites

Prerequisites

Admission into:

LPN Access to Psychiatric Nursing Degree Program or

Psychiatric Nursing Degree Completion Program AND

 

PNUR 3700 and PNUR 4576 and PNUR 4585 (for students registered in LPN Access to Psychiatric Nursing Degree Program only)

Students in the LPN Access program are required to maintain a passing grade of 65% (C+) in all courses to progress in the program.

Corequisites

PNUR 3402 and PNUR 4575 (for students registered in the LPN Access to Psychiatric Nursing Degree Program only)

 

Equivalencies

None

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

(Current)

Course Transfers to Other Institutions

Below are current transfer agreements from Douglas College to other institutions for the current course guidelines only. For a full list of transfer details and archived courses, please see the BC Transfer Guide.

Institution Transfer details for PNUR 3171
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) KPU NRSG 4520 (1)

Course Offerings

Winter 2026

CRN Days Instructor Status
Maximum seats
32
Currently enrolled
0
Remaining seats:
32
On waitlist
0
Building
Online
Room
ONLINE
Times:
-
Section notes

PNUR 3171 090 is restricted to BSPN Degree Completion students. It is strongly recommended that students take PNUR 3700 prior to taking other PNUR Degree Completion courses. Offered online.