Required Courses

NURS311 - Introduction to Health Care Informatics

           This elective course is designed to provide students with an opportunity to apply knowledge and skills from information science and computer science to the health care field.  Emphasis is on developing a basic understanding of how automation is used to manage information in health care.  Topics covered include types of information systems used in health care, how to select and implement information systems, current developments in health care information systems, and issues surrounding computers in health care.  In this course the focus is on the computer as a tool for helping health care providers do their work.  (3 semester hours)

NURS 312- Nursing in Transition

           This course examines professional role socialization from a historic, contemporary, and futuristic view.  It enables the student to develop communication and technology skills necessary for success in a collegiate nursing program.  (Admission into the BSN program is prerequisite) (3 semester hours)

Prerequisites:  Permission of instructor

NURS 313/314 - Health Assessment and Promotion

           Health Assessment and Promotion enables the student to become skilled in assessing the many parameters that influence a client's status and behavior.  Students will integrate client health dimensions including physiological, develop-mental, psychosocial and socio-cultural-religious assessments as a basis for formulating nursing diagnoses and health promotion interventions based upon assessment.  (3 semester hours [2 theory; 1 clinical])  

Pre-  or Co-requisite -  NURS 312

Meet eligibility requirements for Advanced Standing

Placement -  Level II, Junior Level

NURS 322-  The Teaching-Learning Process in Nursing     

           This course is designed for the registered nurse to obtain greater knowledge and skill in assisting individuals, families and groups to acquire health related knowledge, skills, and values.  The course provides opportunities from a conceptual and practical perspective to explore the dynamics that contribute to effective health education.  Emphasis will be placed upon developing the nurse's abilities, confidence, and self-image as a teacher.  (3 semester hours) 

 Pre-requisite -  Permission of Instructor

Placement -  Junior/Senior Level 

 NURS 327 - Group Process in Nursing and Health Care

           This course provides opportunities to develop leadership skills with groups for the purposes of maintaining, regaining or improving their levels of wellness. The focus is on the group as a system. Combined conceptual knowledge and practical skills needed to work effectively with health-related groups will be taught.  (3 credits theory)

Prerequisites - Nursing 313/314 and Nursing 322 are pre or co-requisite. 

NURS 408- Delivery of Nursing in a Managed Care Environment

           This course prepares students to understand managed health care delivery systems and their impact on delivery and practice patterns with emphasis on the delivery of nursing care.  (3 semester hours)

Prerequisites:  Nursing 313/314 (Health Assessment and Promotion) and Phil 325 (Medical Health Care Ethics) are co- or prerequisite.

NURS 416/417- Case Management in Nursing

           This course is designed to prepare students to utilize the case management model to deliver professional nursing care.  (3 semester hours [1 theory; 2 clinical])

Prerequisites:  Nursing 313/314 (Health Assessment and Promotion) and nursing 408/409 (Delivery of Nursing Care in a Managed Care Environment) and Phil 325 (Medical/Health Care Ethics) are pre or co-requisite.

NURS 422- Nursing Research         

           This course more deeply examines the role of research in the development and refinement of the nursing process and its relationship and contribution to the development of nursing science.  The student becomes a more critical consumer of nursing research by developing beginning understanding of the principles associated with each major step of the research process and applying these to a group research exercise.  Students conduct a computer-assisted search of the literature as well as apply the concepts derived from beginning statistics.  (3 credits). 

Prerequisites:  Pre- or co-requisite - SASW 317

Placement -  Senior level 

NURS 426/427- Community Health Nursing

           In this course, the focus is on the community as the client.  Students use the nursing process to assess, plan, implement, and evaluate nursing care for populations and communities.  Theories, models, and concepts from community and public health nursing including epidemiology are used as a basis for each step of the nursing process.  (3 semester hours [2 theory; 1 clinical])

Prerequisites:  NURS 313/314, NURS 327/328; and SASW 317 are pre or co-requisites.

NURS 450: Health Care Informatics Internship
Provides opportunity to apply theory and develop competencies in health care informatics through a work-related experience in an appropriate health related enterprise. Prerequisites: Cumulative and major QPA 2.500 and approval of minor or certificate advisor. (3 credits)

Nursing Electives

Nurs 512/513 Nursing Process with School Populations

Nursing Process with School Populations is a required course in the School Nurse Certificate Program.  This course is also offered as an elective course within the upper division nursing major.  Both theory and practicum are required for eligibility for certification as a school nurse in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  The role of the professional nurse in providing care to clients in the school environment is explored from a past, present, and emerging perspective through the use of distance education technology to present theory and a concurrent clinical practicum were students experience first hand the role of practicing school nurses.  

The student focuses on the interacting personal, social, and biologic subsystems as well as the major socioeconomic, legal, political, and ethical factors which influence the health and well being of the school-aged child and adolescent.  Students are prepared to use an evidence based approach in their professional practice related to school health, school nursing, and/or nursing process with school populations. More specifically, the theory and the accompanying practicum in the school provides the student with an opportunity to explore the independent and interdependent role of the school nurse when applying the nursing process for purposes of maintenance, promotion, and restoration of high level wellness for all students enrolled within the school system. Within all components of the course, the responsibility of the school nurse to exercise leadership, in collaboration with teachers, administrators, and parents for planning, implementing, and evaluating the school health program is emphasized.  (6 semester hours [3 theory; 3 clinical]).  Theory and practicum required for school nurse certification.  

Prerequisite:  NURS 313/314

Placement - Junior/Senior Level

Nurs 515 - Management of School Health Services by School Nurses

This course is designed for the nurse who wishes to prepare for certification as a School Nurse. Topics will include the role of the school nurse, school health program management, leadership strategies, school law and the legal and professional responsibilities of the school nurse.   (3 semester hours)

Prerequisite:  Enrollment in school nursing or permission of instructor

NURS 429- Financial Management for Nursing Case Managers

This course is designed to provide students with content related to current issues in health care financing, tools for financial management, and regulations impacting nursing case managers and health care financial management. All activities for this course are online. (3 semester hours)

NURS 498- Selected Topics

           Nursing courses whose purpose is to deepen or broaden the student's perspective on aspects of professional nursing practice.  Each course includes an exploration of nursing roles and nursing research related to such topics as:  Nursing Care of the Older Adult, Nursing and contemporary Women's Health Issues.  (3 semester hours)

NURS 498-Trends in Nursing Care of Children

The nursing elective, Trends in Nursing Care of Children, is designed to both broaden and deepen the student's perspectives on aspects of the nursing care of children. The course focuses on present-day pediatric care through an exploration of historical, legal, legislative, social, economic, and ethical dimensions on the child and family. There is an exploration of the conceptual frameworks and research findings applied to practice. Trends in illness prevention and care in primary, secondary, and tertiary care settings as well as the responses of children/families to acute and chronic illness are examined. Opportunities to interact with clients in primary and secondary care are provided as are visits to tertiary care facilities.

NURS 510 - Cardiovascular Function:  Assessment and Treatment

           Emphasis is placed upon the pathophysiological changes in coronary artery disease and the major mechanisms used to diagnose, monitor, and treat the alterations.  Normal and abnormal EKG interpretation and medical and surgical management are presented.  The role of a health team approach is addressed.  (3 semester hours)

Prerequisites:  Human Anatomy and Physiology or permission of the instructor.  Registration is limited to persons without ICU/CCU/Telemetry training.

NURS 511 - Advanced Healthcare Informatics

           This course is designed to provide students with an in-depth analysis of healthcare informatics.  Emphasis will be on developing a comprehensive understanding of the use of information systems in health care.  Topics covered include health care data, information and knowledge, health care classifications and coding systems, decision analysis, computer-based patient records, computer networks used in health care, design and implementation of health care systems, and use of ethical and legal principals with information systems.  In this course the focus is on applying computer, information, and health care concepts to real world problems in health care.  (3 semester hours)

Prerequisite:  NURS 311 or permission of instructor

Required Supportive Coursework

PHIL 325- Medical/Health Care Ethics

A course in applied ethics about conceptual, ethical, and legal dilemmas in the institutional rights of patients, in the responsibilities of practitioners, in technological challenges to values in the modern age in caring for the seriously ill and the dying, and in rationing health care in a large society. Prerequisite: Prefer to have students with background in health care fields, social and behavioral sciences, life sciences, pre-law, pre-med and philosophy. (3 credits)

PROF 317- Statistical Methods
Introduction to basic statistical concepts and research techniques used in social research. Prerequisite: SASW 201 or 202. (3 credits)