Course Description
This course is for Licensed Practical and Registered Psychiatric Nurses who choose to enter the general nursing program at Semester Three. Students are introduced to the process of critical reflection and to the concepts associated with the Health, Professional Growth, Self and Others, and Nursing Practice courses in the first year of the nursing program through classroom, laboratory and on-line learning activities.
Course Content
In this course, concepts associated with the Health, Professional Growth, Self and Others and Nursing Practice courses of the first year of the nursing program are discussed. A list of course concepts and essential content is presented below. Concepts are addressed in relation to the four foundational concepts (ways of knowing, personal meaning, time/transitions, culture/context), integrating the metaconcepts, health promotion and caring. The content related to the foundational concepts varies depending on the interests, choices and experiences of course participants.
Program Philosophy
- Philosophy
- Phenomenology
- Humanism
- Feminism (in-depth discussion)
- gender issues (introduction)Critical Social Theory
- Caring
- Health Promotion
- Foundational concepts
- ways of knowing
- personal meaning
- time/transitions
- culture/context
Professional Growth: Self as Learner
- Learner
- learning styles
- experiences with learning
- program assumptions and expectations
- skills i.e. critical thinking; analysis; critique; writing, including reflective writing; time management; group work; library research; orientation to College computer and library resources, student services and nursing program learning resources
Health Styles
- Lifestyle
- healthy lifestyle
- change theory; change process
- lifestyle change
- health maintenance
- Prevention (introduction)
- levels of prevention
- examples
Professional Growth - Self as Nurse
- Nursing
- a guide for decision-making
- Social construction of nursing
- historical perspective – including feminist perspectives on the gendered history of nursing
- personal perception
- societal views and expectations
- current trends and issues
- socialization (role transition)
- Professionalism
- responsibility/accountability
- professional bodies
- ethical codes
- standards of practice
- confidentiality
- evidence-based practice
- professional resources e.g. libraries, journals, RNABC, CNA
- laws
- legal issues
- commitment
Self and Others
- Relationship
- self as a group member
- relational caring
- relational ethics
- interpersonal process
- Personal meaning
- perception
- feelings
- self awareness
- identify development as person, nurse (with clients, team) other roles
- ways of being in relation with others (1:1, family, groups)
- establishing relationships
- Techniques of communication
- support (presencing, attending, listening)
- respect (acceptance, empathy)
- clarifying
- non-verbal communication
- paraphrasing
- self-disclosure
- questioning (open, closed, circular)
- perception checking
- interviewing
- Health promotion relationships (includes interviewing)
- Group process
- community building as a member of a team
- Empowerment (through relationships)
- Synchrony/mutuality
- Contradictions (within self & others)
- Intentionality
- “Being with” and “letting be”
- Diversity
- how diversity is honoured in relational practice
- promoting cultural safety
- Collaboration
- Self-concept
- Caring
- balancing of caring for self and caring for others
- Advocacy
Facilitating Health in Families
- Family
- theory
- family patterns, roles and role change
- meaning of family in society
- Health Promotion
- beliefs, values, perception
- determinants of health
- individual and family
- family’s experience with chronic health challenge
- Chronicity
- Tertiary Prevention (rehabilitation)
- Principles of rehabilitation (introduction)
- Loss/grieving
- Hope
- courage, spirituality
- persistence
- Empowerment
- coping
- teaching/learning
- dependence/independence, autonomy, control
- Self-image
- self-concept, self-esteem, body image
- role/role change
- Personal Meaning; Perception
- experience and interpretation of health challenge
- Personal Meaning: Resources
- relationship with, accessing, internal and external resource (e.g. health care system, support systems)
- Loneliness
- Pain/Suffering
- chronic pain
- physical and psychological pain
- psychological, emotion, physical and spiritual suffering
- Environment/context
- Vulnerability/stress related to chronicity
- potential for abuse
- abuse of clients
- abuse of caregivers (informal)
- Time/Transitions
- change
- personal growth
- adjustment to chronic health challenge
Psychomotor Skills
- Psychomotor skills are organized around the following themes:
- Asepsis
- Mobility
- Therapeutic agents/Modalities
- Irrigation/Drainage
- Health Assessment
- health promotion framework
- the computer as a tool to manage information
Learning Activities
It is the faculty's intent to collaborate with students in identifying individual learning needs and to facilitate the optimal use of resources to meet these needs. This includes opportunities for skill review and assessment. It is also intended that a caring relationship develops between course participants, modeling the type of relationship that nurses are to develop with their clients. An understanding that caring involves challenge, criticism, and nurturing is promoted.
Course concepts are addressed through classroom laboratory and on-line learning activities designed to actively engage students in achieving understanding. Some learning activities involve interactions with a resource family and a family experiencing a chronic health challenge and may involve observation of nurses' work. In this course, students are to have beginning experience with using the computer as a tool to manage information.
Students are encouraged to engage in active dialogue with others and to develop their ability to communicate their ideas and feelings in a nonthreatening, confident manner. Respect for different points of view is emphasized. Students are to reflect on and analyze personal and nursing practice experience as they relate to course concepts. Critical and independent thinking are emphasized.
Means of Assessment
Course evaluation is consistent with Douglas College Curriculum Development and Approval policy. Evaluation is based on the following required elements: a written paper, skill assessment, a written reflective journal and group participation. Respect for individual choices and openness to negotiation guide decisions about methods of evaluation. The final mark may be based on other methods of evaluation.
This is a graded course. A passing grade (65%) is required in order to progress to the regular nursing program.
Learning Outcomes
In this course, students have opportunities to:
- reflect upon the role of the professional nurse
- develop an awareness of the philosophy, beliefs and values that form the basis of the nursing program
- explore own self-concept as a relational person and as it pertains to learning, health, and nursing
- examine different theoretical perspectives of the family and nurses’ work in relation to family
- examine the principles and practices of health promotion both for the individual and the family
- gain insight into people’s experiences with chronic health challenges and concepts of caring in this context
- develop skill in health and family assessment
- develop relational way of being with others (individual, family, and groups) and begin to develop a caring identify.
Textbook Materials
Textbooks and Materials to be Purchased by Students
- Praxis Experience
- Personal Experience
- Previous Nursing Practice Experience
- Resource Family
- Family experiencing a chronic health challenge
- A list of recommended textbooks and materials will be presented to students at the beginning of the course.
- Other Resources
- A variety of nursing practice textbooks
- Selected journal articles, and professional and government documents
- Selected audio-visual and computer software
- Nursing laboratory