Nursing Degrees Online

Advisor: Marilyn Tufte
Office: 253 Gardner Hall
Phone: 608-342-1664

Occupational therapy is a vital health care service that uses purposeful activity as the basis for treatment and prevention of a wide variety of physical, developmental and emotional disabilities. Occupational therapists plan programs which enable patients to practice self-care, learn personal and social behavior skills and gain more independence.

The UW-Platteville program for pre-occupational therapy students provides the necessary science background as well as an understanding of people and society necessary to gain entrance into the professional phase.

At a Glance

People who care to help people through nursing will find a lot to care about in UWG’s School of Nursing. Two tracks are offered—one for students with a nursing associate’s degree and another for people who want to become registered nurses, making for impressive scope and depth. The School of Nursing also offers personal attention, small classes, expert faculty and exciting clinical experiences.
Why should I choose UWG’s Nursing program?
Quality program based on a philosophy of caring. Students are provided the necessary support to be successful in the program, including a comprehensive program from beginning to end to promote success on the NCLEX-RN, the licensure examination to practice as a Registered Nurse.
Flexible scheduling for class and clinical experiences, and small classes with expert faculty.
Accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.
BSN program approved by the Georgia Board of Nursing.
Are there any special opportunities available?
Participation in Caring Groups, an experiential learning activity designed to provide opportunities to learn caring and to experience caring from peers and faculty. The focus is on learning self-care, test taking/study skills, as well as an appreciation of the importance for caring for patients and colleagues in the profession.
Two tracks are offered in the BSN program. One track is for individuals who have completed an associative degree in nursing or who have a diploma in nursing and who are currently licensed as registered nurses. The second track for individuals seeking to become registered nurses offers two options for juniors and seniors: A full-time program on the main campus in Carrollton and a part-time program on the Newnan campus.
What can I do after graduation, graduate school and job-wise?
Graduates of the BSN program who obtain licensure to practice as a Registered Nurse have virtually unlimited job opportunities in acute and long-term care settings, industry and schools.
What kind of student organizations, clubs or honorary societies can I join?
Georgia Association of Nursing Students.
National Student Nurses Association—Faculty support for this organization includes release from class and clinical learning in order to attend state and national level meetings.
What kind of facilities and equipment will be made available to me?
Clinical laboratory.
Courses are taught with WebCT Vista support to facilitate learning, communication and testing within courses.
Does the faculty specialize in certain areas?
Faculty in the School of Nursing are actively engaged in nursing research and scholarship.
Faculty members present the findings of research through publication and presentation at national and international level conferences.
Faculty are actively involved in the professional association for nurses, the American Nurses Association, as well as associations relevant to specialty areas.

Occupational therapists work with people whose performance and participation in everyday living has been disrupted by disability, physical injury or illness, developmental problems, psychological problems and/or social and environmental impediments. By enabling people to engage in activities that hold meaning for them, occupational therapists aim to help people improve their day-to-day quality of life.

Occupational therapy is concerned, not only with the ability of the individual to perform self-care, leisure and productive activities, but also with the impact of the environment on the person’s life. Occupational therapy interventions consider:
The individual person - improving or maintaining their level of physical, cognitive (thinking), affective (emotional) and social ability.
The occupation - examining the self-care, leisure and work-related activities people value in their daily lives and making changes to these activities so that they better meet the individual’s abilities.
The environment - manipulating or adapting the physical environment so that it does not impede but, if possible, enhances performance; and influencing the social, cultural and institutional environment in ways that enable variously disabled and disadvantaged people to live as independent a life as possible and reach their full potential.

Occupational therapists work in a variety of clinical and community settings, including hospitals, rehabilitation units, schools, and community health centres. Some examples of what occupational therapists do include:
Adapting the home of an elderly person to make it easier and safer for him/her to use
Working with people with depression and schizophrenia using activities such as cooking a meal to foster a sense of achievement, develop personal skills and facilitate successful experiences
Using play activities to improve the play and movement skills of children with cerebral palsy
Running life skills programmes that help people with intellectual disabilities develop skills such as budgeting so that they can live more independently in the community
Helping people select and effectively use equipment and appliances, including wheelchairs, dressing aids, computers and other assistive technology, to increase their independence
Assessing the ability of someone with acquired brain injury to return to work and then modify that person’s work (the job itself and the workplace) to enable this, where possible, to happen.

This course of study provides multidisciplinary and international research and education in order to establish the principles and methodology in mental health nursing．Fundamental issues covered are stress-coping behaviors, supporting methods for self-care and decision making, nursing consultation techniques, and the techniques of analyzing clinical situations and supervising. The course is aiming to establish practical standards for advanced practice in mental health and psychiatric nursing care.

Research
Self-Care Support and Decision-Making Support
Support by Specialists for Self-Help Groups
Nursing Intervention to Promote the Recovery of People with Mental Illnesses
Required Conditions for Mentally Handicapped People’s Autonomy in Community
Methods of Supervision and Consultation Using Case Study
Small Group Dynamics of Nursing Team and Inner-Group Role Sharing
Analysis of Sense of Incongruity: Methods of Refining Sensitivity
Forensic Mental Health Nursing

The purpose of the program is to prepare professional nursing practitioners who are proactive and responsive to the changing health needs of society, and able to function in a variety of settings. The program also provides the foundation for graduate study.

(Please note: the Post degree and Fast Track options are not offered every year.)
The program is designed to accomplish the following goals:

To promote, maintain, and restore the health of clients through the practice of professional nursing in a variety of settings.
To promote and implement the philosophy of primary health care.
To promote awareness of the ethical, moral and legal issues related to health and health care delivery.
To implement a nursing practice model that reflects the principles of self-care.
To stimulate the search for, and the application of, knowledge
To promote multisectorial collaborative participation in health care
To promote facilitative and deliberate interaction
To develop the individual’s capacity for leadership in professional nursing practice
To stimulate personal and professional development of the individual

The Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) program at Long Beach City College seeks students who are interested in helping others who are physically and emotionally capable of meeting the challenge of this exciting career.

The faculty believe that nursing is an essential service to society and, as such, influences and is influenced by factors that affect society. Nursing is holistic in its endeavor to help patients achieve a state of well-being and is practiced with respect for human dignity and individual differences. We as nurses are concerned with assisting the patient (individuals, families, and groups of people) in promoting, maintaining, and restoring health to the optimal level attainable depending on the patient’s stage of life, functional abilities, and environmental resources. This might also include allowing the patient to die with peace and dignity.

The faculty believes that individuals are human beings who continuously contribute to their own continued existence, health, and well-being. All humans practice self-care activities that are initiated and performed on their own behalf in maintaining life, health and well-being. Patients use nursing and other health services when they are incapable of continuous self-care or dependent care or actions that result in ineffective or incomplete care. The faculty believe that the “art of nursing is practiced by ‘doing for’ the person with the disability, by ‘helping him to do for himself’ and/or by ‘helping him to learn to do for himself.’” (Orem, 1956). Nursing systems are formed when nurses use their abilities to prescribe, design, and provide nursing for patients by performing discrete actions. These actions regulate the value of, or the exercise of, patients’ capabilities to engage in self-care and meet the self-care requisites of the individual therapeutically (Orem, 1985)

The family nurse practitioner (FNP) sequence offered at Mennonite College of Nursing prepares graduates to function in an advanced practice role. The FNP utilizes an aggregate-based practice model for direct health care services that integrate preventive and self-care measures, as well as the diagnosis and management of commonly occurring acute and chronic health conditions. The role also includes participation in and use of research, development and implementation of health policy, and education of individuals and groups. The practice of the FNP is based on a synthesis of knowledge from the following areas: nursing theory, advanced pathophysiology, pharmacotherapeutics, epidemiology, diagnostic reasoning, advanced health assessment, research, roles, and legal/ethical issues, as well as content and clinical practica dealing with care across the lifespan. Graduates of the FNP sequence are eligible to take an examination through a professional organization for certification as an FNP and to become licensed as an advanced practice nurse.

Nurses have the scientific and technical competence to professionally take care of and help the individual, the family and the community, satisfying their fundamental needs when they are unable to do so for themselves due to harmful or risky health related circumstances. This entails the promotion of self-care or early independence through the application of science and nursing techniques and by means of creating a meaningful interpersonal relationship respecting the individuality and dignity of the person they are caring for.
They are trained to teach, administer and conduct research in the field of nursing and may undertake work in first class health centers, of high or low complexity, private hospitals and clinics; as educators in tertiary or university nursing schools or in research centers devoted to their field of expertise and public health.

Licensed Vocational Nurses practice under the direction of a licensed Physician or Registered Nurse and are trained to perform services requiring technical and manual nursing skills to provide basic nursing services which include the following:
Uses and practices basic assessment (data collection), participates in planning, executes interventions in accordance with the care plan or treatment plan, and contributes to evaluation of individualized interventions related to the care plan or treatment plan.
Provides direct patient/client care
Performs basic nursing services
Administers medications
Applies communication skills in patient care and education
Participates in patient education to promote self-care skills

Licensed Vocational Nurses are employed in a variety of health care settings that include:

Long-term care/skilled nursing facilities
Acute care hospitals
Home health agencies
Physician’s offices
Medical clinics
Public Health Department
Education institutions

3000 Professionalism in Nursing. One credit. Exposes the novice nursing student to the profession of nursing. Concept of professionalism explored and related to nursing. Includes a brief historical review of nursing and nursing theories. Professional values, practice standards, and communications with health care professional introduced. Legal implications for nursing explored.

3010 Pathophysiology. Three credits. (Same as BIOL 3340.) Prerequisites: BIOL 2010, 2020, and 2230. Basic mechanisms of disease processes and their role in disrupting normal physiology. Three hours lecture.

3030 Health Assessment. Three credits. Prerequisites: BIOL 2010 and 2020. Corequisite: NURS 3040. Principles and techniques required for the assessment and analysis of data (diagnosis). Normal assessment findings and selected abnormal findings studied. Cultural variations and assessment variations across the lifespan explored.

3040 Health Assessment Laboratory. One credit. Prerequisites: BIOL 2010 and 2020. Corequisite: NURS 3030. Opportunity to practice the basic principles and techniques required for the assessment and analysis of data (diagnosis). Normal assessment findings in the adult as well as selected abnormal findings studied. Cultural variations and assessment variations across the lifespan explored. Three clock hours per week.

3110 Concepts of Nurse Agency. Two credits. Prerequisites: Admission to upper-level nursing and completion of majority of lower-division required courses. Philosophy and objectives of the program, Self-Care Deficit Theory, and other concepts and theories relevant to nurse agency. Two hours lecture.

3111 Professional Role Development. Three credits. Socializes the returning R.N. into the role of a baccalaureate nurse. Professionalism in nursing, role transition, history of nursing education, and issues pertinent to returning adult learners.

3130 Health Assessment for Nurse Agency. Two credits. Prerequisites: BIOL 2230, 3130, 3140, and 3340. Corequisite: NURS 3140. Physical and psychosocial assessment skills developed to provide a basis for reorganizing and meeting client self-care deficits. Two hours lecture.

3140 Health Assessment Clinical. One credit. Prerequisites: BIOL 2230, 3130, 3140, and 3340. Corequisite: NURS 3130. Practice in physical and psychosocial assessment. Two hours laboratory.

3150 Self-Care Assistance. Five credits. Prerequisites: Admission to the upper-division nursing program and completion of the lower-division required courses. Knowledge and skills necessary to apply Self-Care Deficit Theory. Five hours of lecture.

3160 Assistance Clinical. Five credits. Prerequisite: Admission to upper-division nursing. Corequisite: NURS 3150. Self-Care Deficit Theory applied in clinical settings. Ten hours laboratory.

3170 Pharmacological Requisites for Nurse Agency. Three credits. Prerequisites: General Education Natural Science; BIOL 2230, 2010, 2020; NURS 3010. Knowledge and responsibility necessary for the assessment and monitoring of clients receiving pharma-cotherapeutics.

3230 Developmental Promotion in Childbearing. Three credits. Prerequisites: NURS 3110, 3130, 3140, 3150, 3160, and 3170. Corequisite: 3240. Concepts of the family as a societal unit emphasizing the childbearing function. Stresses nurse agency assistance with developmental tasks and crisis intervention from preconception through the late postpartum period. Three hours lecture.

3240 Childbearing Clinical. Three credits. Prerequisites: NURS 3110, 3130, 3140, 3150, 3160, and 3170. Corequisite: 3230. Care of clients from the prenatal through the postpartum period in clinical settings. Six hours laboratory.

3250 Mental Health Requisite Care. Three credits. Prerequisites: NURS 3110, 3130, 3140, 3150, 3160, and 3170. Corequisite: NURS 3260. Nurse agency in the promotion of mental health and the care of clients with acute and chronic mental health deficits. Three hours lecture.

3260 Mental Health Clinical. Three credits. Prerequisites: NURS 3110, 3130, 3140, 3150, 3160, and 3170. Corequisite: NURS 3250. Care of clients with acute and chronic mental health deficits in the clinical setting. Six hours laboratory.

3270 Educative/Supportive Health Care. Four credits. Prerequisites: NURS 3110, 3130, 3140, 3150, 3160, and 3170. Corequisite: NURS 3280. Incorporates concepts from nursing and public health to emphasize the role of nurse agency in primary care settings with an orientation toward individuals, families, groups, and communities. Four hours lecture.

3280 Educative Clinical. Three credits. Prerequisites: NURS 3110, 3130, 3140, 3150, 3160, and 3170. Corequisite: NURS 3270. Nurse agency support of individuals, families, groups, and communities in a variety of settings. Six hours laboratory.

3350 Introduction to Nursing Practice. Five credits. Prerequisites: NURS 3010, 3030, 3040, and 3370. Prerequisite or corequisites: NURS 3170 and 3570. Introduces nursing care concepts necessary to support basic care of clients across the lifespan; foundation for subsequent nursing courses.

3360 Introduction to Nursing Practice–Clinical. Four credits. Prerequisites: NURS 3010, 3030, 3040, and 3370. Corequisite: NURS 3350. Nursing practice applied in laboratory and clinical settings. Twelve clock hours per week.

3370 Health and Gerontology. Three credits. Focuses on the normal aging process and related health care issues from an interdisciplinary perspective. Incorporates concepts of health promotion, prevention, and adaptation for those who are aging and their families.

3530 Caring for Adult Clients I. Five credits. Prerequisites: NURS 3350 and 3360. Corequisite: NURS 3540. Professional nursing care in a variety of settings for the adult client with simple and chronic health problems.

3540 Caring for Adult Clients I–Clinical. Four credits. Prerequisite or corequisite: NURS 3530. Applying the nursing process in a clinical setting with the adult client experiencing acute and chronic health deviations. Twelve clock hours per week.

3550 Caring for the Childbearing Family. Three credits. Prerequisites: NURS 3350 and 3360. Corequisite: NURS 3560. Incorporates the nursing process and critical thinking skills into the professional nursing care of the childbearing female and the family. Focuses on health promotion, prevention, and adaptation for the childbearing client.

3560 Caring for the Childbearing Family–Clinical. Two credits. Prerequisites: NURS 3350 and 3360. Corequisite: NURS 3550. Nursing process for applying the clinical application and principles of nursing and family theory to childbearing families. Focuses on health promotion, prevention, and adaptation for childbearing families.

3570 Health Care Research. Three credits. Prerequisites: NURS 3350 and 3360; MATH 1530; or permission of the director of the School of Nursing. Utilizes systematic inquiry and analysis by reinforcing the problem-solving method. Utilization of research in the improvement of health care practice to affect positive client outcomes examined. Attention given to a thorough search and critique of current research literature related to a problem area selected by the student.

4005 Independent Health Care Study. One to three credits. Prerequisites: Admission to the upper division of the nursing program and permission of instructor. Allows the student to pursue individual interests in nursing by contracting with an instructor and documenting the plan of learning as well as its fulfillment. One to three lectures or two to six laboratory hours.

4035 Special Topics in Nursing. Three credits. Explores selected nursing topics in depth. Specified topic offered each semester according to student interest and faculty availability.

4055 Informatics for the Health Care Professional. Three credits. Theoretical foundations of informatics for health care professionals. Examines information technology and tools on the Internet. Emphasis on impact of automated data management through information systems in health care.

4130 Health Deviation Requisite Care. Six credits. Prerequisites: NURS 3230, 3240, 3250, 3260, 3270, and 3280. Corequisite: NURS 4140. The nursing process in the care of the adult client with physical self-care deficits in acute and long-term care settings. Six hours lecture.

4140 Health Deviation Clinical. Three credits. Prerequisites: NURS 3130, 3240, 3250, 3260, 3270, and 3280. The nursing process applied in the clinical setting to clients with physical self-care deficits. Six hours laboratory.

4150 Developmental Assistance in Childrearing. Three credits. Prerequisites: NURS 3130, 3240, 3250, 3270, and 3280. Corequisite: NURS 4160. Unique body of knowledge and skills essential to the delivery of safe, comprehensive care to children, adolescents, and their families when deleterious factors threaten to interrupt development. Three hours lecture.

4160 Childrearing Clinical. Three credits. Prerequisites: NURS 3130, 3240, 3250, 3270, and 3280. Corequisite: NURS 4150. Care of children, adolescents, and their families in various settings. Six hours laboratory.

4210 Health Care Research. Three credits. Prerequisites: MATH 1530 and CSCI 1000 or permission of instructor. The research process in developing a research proposal for a student-identified problem in the health care delivery system. Discussion and critique of related research findings and research proposals of peers. Three hours lecture.

4230 Compensatory Health Care. Four credits. Prerequisites: NURS 4130, 4140, 4150, and 4160. Knowledge base for working with critically and terminally ill clients requiring wholly compensatory care. Legal and ethical considerations arising in critical care settings are explored and professional responsibilities are refined. Four hours lecture.

4240 Compensatory Clinical. Three credits. Prerequisites: NURS 4130, 4140, 4150, and 4160. Corequisite: NURS 4230. Clinical course taken concurrently with NURS 4230. Provides clinical experience in critical care areas and with clients requiring wholly compensatory care. Requires nine (eight hour) days in hospital plus simulated labs.

4250 Leadership in Nursing Systems. Four credits. Prerequisites: NURS 4130, 4140, 4150, and 4160. Concepts of leadership applied to the practice of nurse agency. Technical, administrative, and human relations skills are identified for the purpose of adjusting the goals of a group. Four hours lecture.

4260 Management of Nursing Systems. Three credits. Prerequisites: NURS 4130, 4140, 4150, and 4160. Corequisite: NURS 4035. Clinical course taken concurrently or after NURS 4035. Provides independence in management of nursing systems in various health care institutions. Requires eleven (eight-hour) days in hospital plus simulated labs.

4330 Caring for Adult Clients II. Five credits. Prerequisites: NURS 3530 and 3540. Corequisite: NURS 4340. Incorporates the nursing process and critical thinking skills into the professional nursing care of the adult client experiencing complex, multi-system illness, failure, and trauma. Opportunities for the nursing student to combine acquired knowledge from previous nursing courses and courses from other disciplines with new phenomena encountered in a variety of high acuity care settings.

4340 Caring for Adult Clients II–Clinical. Four credits. Prerequisites: NURS 3530 and 3540. Corequisite: NURS 4330. Opportunity for nursing students to integrate didactic and empirical knowledge and skills for clients with critical needs into the acute care setting. Understanding of complex, multi-system illness, failure, and trauma in providing nursing care. Twelve clock hours per week.

4350 Caring for Children and Teen Clients. Three credits. Prerequisites: NURS 3530 and 3540. Corequisite: NURS 4360. Incorporates the nursing process and critical thinking skills into the professional nursing care of children, adolescents, and their families. Principles of growth and development and family-centered care.

4360 Caring for Children and Teen Clients–Clinical. Two credits. Prerequisites: NURS 3530 and 3540. Corequisite: NURS 4350. Provides assistance in transferring knowledge to the implementation of nursing care of children, adolescents, teens, and their families in a variety of clinical settings. Six clock hours per week.

4530 Caring for the Community as Client. Three credits. Opportunity for students to learn theoretical concepts and epidemiological principles related to health promotion and preventive services. Primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of prevention covered. Focuses on the work of an interdisciplinary health care team and concepts of nursing and public health when working with the individual, family, group, and community as client.

4550 Caring for Clients with Mental Health Alterations. Three credits. Prerequisites: NURS 3530 and 3540. Corequisites: NURS 4560. Opportunity for students to learn theoretical concepts relating to mental health and psychiatric nursing. Interpersonal and group communication, psychopathology, and legal and ethical issues explored. Methods used in providing nursing care for clients with alterations in mental health presented. Interdisciplinary health care team and its function in the psychiatric setting explored.

4560 Nursing Care of Vulnerable Aggregates Clinical. Three credits. Prerequisites or corequisites: NURS 4530 and 4550. Familiarizes the undergraduate nursing student with ways to care for aggregates. Emphasis on clients in the community and in in-patient psychiatric facilities. Nine clock hours per week.

4570 Professional Practice and Leadership. Three credits. Prerequisites: NURS 3530 and 3540. Corequisite: NURS 4580. Opportunity for students to learn theoretical concepts relating to leadership in nursing. Theories of leadership and management including legal and ethical issues explored.

4580 Professional Practice and Leadership Clinical. Three credits. Prerequisite or corequisite: NURS 4570. Clinical application of professional practice and leadership principles. Provides independence in the management of nursing systems in various health care institutions. Six clock hours per week.