Course Description
This course builds on all previous courses and focuses on issues of importance that arise in a professional nursing practice setting as students transition to their role as new graduates. Examples include, but are not limited to, quality improvement and risk management, access to and continuity/quality of health care, health care policy and policy development, organizational culture and climate, power and politics, quality of nurses’ work lives, and professional support networks. The course uses a praxis approach which involves examination of the dynamic interplay between knowledge and practice.
Course Content
In this course, issues of importance that arise in professional nursing practice settings are the foci for discussion. The issues are brought into the classroom by the students. The general themes outlined below provide the framework for these discussions. In addition, the core curriculum concepts are integrated in this course.
- Access to, and continuity of, quality of health care
- Health care policy and policy development
- Resource management
- Quality improvement and risk management
- Organizational culture and climate
- Power and politics
- Leadership and management
- Relational practice
- Health promotion
- Prevention
- Global/societal health trends
- Moral distress and ethical decision making
- Changing nature of nurses’ work
- Quality of nurses’ work lives
- Professional support networks
Learning Activities
It is the intent of faculty to facilitate student learning and leadership ability, and promote critical inquiry, reflection and analytical reasoning, through a variety of learning processes such as individual/group discussion and presentation, role-play, client/situation based analysis, use of electronic media and independent study.
Means of Assessment
The course evaluation is consistent with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy. A course evaluation schedule and other course evaluation information are provided on the Instructor’s Course Outline which is available to students at the beginning of each semester. This is a mastery course.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this course, successful students will be able to demonstrate knowledge development that will expand their ability to:
- Provide safe, competent and compassionate nursing care that is grounded in professional integrity and pride and that honors the perspective of self and others as unique beings, who affect and are affected by their context/environment.
- Formulate nursing practice decisions that promote health through critical inquiry, reflection, and analytical reasoning processes that are informed by multiple sources of knowledge.
- Use a relational perspective and an ethic of caring to engage with individuals, families, groups, and communities in a variety of settings to promote health and well-being.
- Demonstrate leadership qualities that promote and support an inter-professional collaborative model of client-centered care which will influence the future of nursing practice at a political, social, and professional level to attain quality care for clients and quality work environments for nurses.
- Meet the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives (BCCNM) requirements for professional practice as identified in the BCCNM Professional and Practice Standards, the Scope of Practice for Registered Nurses, the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) Code of Ethics for Registered Nurses, and the Entry-level Competencies for Registered Nurses in B.C.
Textbook Materials
Textbooks and Materials to be Purchased by Students:
A list of recommended textbooks and materials is provided on the Instructor’s Course Outline which is available to students at the beginning of each semester.