Foundations of Assessment and Communication in Nursing (NURS 20020)
- Competencies: Performing a head-to-toe assessment, including taking vitals (blood pressure, temperature and pulses) and skin, HEENT, neurological, musculoskeletal, respiratory (breath sounds), cardiovascular (heart sounds), and abdominal assessments (bowel sounds)
- Patient teaching: N/A
- Evidence Based Practice: Concept care map
- Personal reflection: I learned how to do a head-to-toe assessment and concept care maps to prepare me for my first semester of clinicals.
Interpersonal Communication for Healthcare Professionals (NURS 20010)
- Competencies: Learning about aspects of nursing such as communication, generational diversity, roles, etc. and working in a team to create a project
- Patient teaching: N/A
- EBP: N/A
- Personal Reflection: I learned about working in groups and communicating with others to accomplish a goal.
Foundations of Nursing Interventions (Nurs 20030)
- Competencies: Learning the beginning aspects of working in a clinical setting by caring for patients, including feeding and bathing and administering medications; in lab, I learned how to insert and empty a catheter and how to administer an enema, although I have not had the opportunity to do so in a clinical setting
- Patient teaching: N/A
- EBP: Concept Map, Nursing Diagnosis Sheet, Nursing Note, Medication Sheet and Lab Analysis
- Personal Reflection: I learned to care for patients in a hospital setting. I enjoyed learning how to specialize the type of care for your patient for the day and am ready and excited to learn even more next semester.
Nursing of Adults (Nurs 30030)
- Competencies: Continuing to work in a clinical setting with emphasis on adults with major diseases, starting IV's, flushing PICC lines, administering medications and developing more experience in the clinical setting
- Patient teaching: Taught patients information on medications such as anticoagulants (the purpose and possible side effects that the patient may experience) and taught patients the importance of physical therapy exercise and the importance of incentive spirometry and how to use
- EBP: Clinical Diagnosis Prep Work and Process Paper
- Personal Reflection: I liked that in the clinical setting this semester, I received patients with different kinds of illnesses. In the semester before, I was on an orthopedic floor. This semester I was on a medical-surgical floor. I had patients that had COPD, cellulitis and even had a hospice patient. I liked being able to care for patients that had different needs and specialize my care for the day for each patient.
Nursing of Adults with Gerontological &/or Rehabilitation Needs (NURS 30040)
- Competencies: Working in a clinical setting with older adults, including a hospital and nursing home, caring for older adults with debilitating illnesses, care related to aging and rehabilitation and continuing practicing IV administration and care, passing medications and gaining more experience in a clinical setting
- Patient teaching: Taught older patients the importance of yearly flu shots and the importance of taking their medications daily and as prescribed
- EBP: Clinical Prep Work and Process Paper
- Personal Reflection: With this course, I gained more experience in caring for the older adult. In clinical, I was at a nursing home and hospital and had a wide variety of patients. Some of my patients were not able to ambulate because of a stroke and some were confused because they had dementia. I was able to provide care for patients with different types of illness related to aging. I was also able to demonstrate what I learned in lab last semester by administering my first intramuscular injection and insertion of a straight catheter.
Healthcare of Children (NURS 30020)
- Competencies: Implementing nursing interventions and critical thinking skills in the care of children and their families, researching information about specific patients and communicating with patients, their families and other members of the healthcare team to facilitate maximum care and gaining additional experience in obtaining vital signs and calculating safe dosages
- Patient teaching: discharge instructions, home medication administration, plan of care, Sitz bath procedure and a community teaching experience at a local preschool teaching 3-year-olds hand-washing techniques
- EBP: Process Paper and Case Study
- Personal Reflection: It was very different working with infants, children and young adults than older adults. I enjoyed having patients with different diagnoses and found it easy to connect with many of the older children. I obtained more practice in intravenous medication administration, calculating safe dosages and enjoyed teaching patients and their families and knowing I made a difference in the care they will provide for themselves or their family. I will use what I learned this semester and apply it to upcoming semesters and continue improving with my communication skills.
Parent and Newborn Nursing (NURS 30010)
- Competencies: Working in a clinical setting with postpartum patients, communicating information to patients and their families, performing postpartum assessments, and gaining more experience in performing vital signs and passing medications.
- Patient teaching: Educated patients on comfort care during the postpartum period
- EBP: Process Paper
- Personal Reflection: I enjoyed this clinical because it was very different than any other clinical. This clinical was a hospital setting, but did not deal with ill patients, like many of the other clinicals. It was amazing being able to be in the room with a family that had just had a baby and am glad I was a part of it. I was able to gain more experience for my future career. This was the last clinical course of my junior year and I feel ready to begin my senior year.
Nursing Informatics (NURS 30050)
- Competencies: Gaining knowledge in how to apply informatics in the nursing field and actually applying it, using information terminology and technology and realizing why informatics is important in patient care and safety
- Patient teaching: Brochure on Asthma
- EBP: Assignment and Concept Map
- Personal Reflection: This was a web-based class designed to teach the importance of informatics and how technology will advance the nursing field. I learned that it is important to realize that now so I will be prepared to learn new systems in the future.
Professional Nursing Development (NURS 40005)
- Competencies: Prepared for my future nursing career by gaining practice in writing cover letters and resumes, interview skills and speaking and presentation skills and gaining knowledge in current nursing issues by watching a professional meeting
- Patient teaching: N/A
- EBP: Intensive Writing
- Personal Reflection: I thought this class was beneficial to help me further my career in nursing. It allowed me to gain experience in writing a cover letter and resume and even practice my interview skills with a mock interview. I was able to gain more information on several subjects in nursing from a presentation and intensive paper. I was also able to attend a webinar to learn about current nursing trends and issues from nursing professionals.
Intro to Nursing Research (NURS 40872)
- Competencies: Researching nursing focused subjects, understanding the importance of research for Evidence Based Practice in nursing, formulating research questions and critiquing other research articles and studies
- Patient teaching: N/A
- EBP: EBP Project
- Personal Reflection: This course allowed me to gain experience in researching nursing related topics. It will benefit me in my future career as a nurse because I have experience in researching new nursing subjects and can stay up-to-date on new changes or policies in the nursing field. I now know how to find Evidence Based Practice articles and use what I learn to apply it to my own methods of practice in nursing.
Psychiatric Nursing & Mental Health Nursing Care (NURS 40030)
- Competencies: Learning about patients with mental illnesses and developing an understanding and own self-awareness for those patients, assessing clients with psychiatric disorders, practicing therapeutic communication skills with those patients, maintaining a professional attitude and boundary with clients and assisting in treatment of clients with psychiatric disorders
- Patient teaching: Teaching patients to avoid negative thoughts when thinking and to seek help when having suicidal ideations, taught an educational class to a group of mentally ill patients about different coping mechanisms with a focus on journaling and how that can be used as a stress management technique
- EBP: Mental Illness Journal, Journal
- Personal Reflection: This semester I was able to gain knowledge about people with mental illnesses. It was interesting to see how a patient can come into the hospital and leave a few days later with a completely different attitude. I was able to assist some of these patients in their recovery. I was also able to improve my confidence when talking with patients and was able to improve my therapeutic communication skills. I was also able to use these skills in my other clinical area this semester and will continue to use these throughout my nursing career.
Integration of Leadership and Management in Nursing (NURS 40045)
- Competencies: Completed 120 hours of practicum in a professional manner, provided high quality nursing care of four patients by myself, improvement in time management, prioritization, leadership, delegation, and communication skills, applied the scope of practice of registered nurses, and utilized teamwork while caring for all patients
- Patient teaching: Reason for and how to use SCD's, purpose of anticoagulant therapy (Heparin, Lovenox), incentive spirometry teaching, and basic patient teaching (such as purpose of medications and education of patient care)
- EBP: Forty Hour Journal, Eighty Hour Journal, Final Journal
- Personal Reflection: This clinical setting allowed me to see how a nurse's shift typically goes. I was able to get report on my patients, perform assessments, give medications and chart while practicing my time management skills. I utilized other members of the team, such as nursing assistants, pharmacy and dietary, to assist in patient needs. This role was a student nurse, but I felt as if I was the RN for these patients and this was the first time I was able to feel like this in a clinical setting. It allowed me to improve my self esteem in my nursing care and I feel more confident to take on a full patient load when I graduate.
Nursing of the Critical Ill (NURS 40010)
- Competencies: Utilizing critical thinking skills in caring for a critically ill patient, applying the nursing process in care of patients in the emergency room, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and in the Surgical Care Unit (SCU), acquiring extra knowledge about life saving medications and enhancing my professional role as a nurse through participation and delivery of care to critically ill patients.
- Patient teaching: Taught patients on several medications, including anticoagulation therapy, the purpose for these medications and how they are important in their recovery plan.
- EBP: Process Paper 1, Process Paper 2
- Personal Reflection: I thought this clinical experience was very different from any other clinical. It was interesting to see how much of your time one patient can take when they are critically ill. I was fearful at first because these patients were so sick and needed so much care, I was afraid to go near them. Once I got the hang of what to do and relaxed, it was just like taking care of any other patient, just that they needed more treatments. It was also different taking care of patients that were sedated and on ventilators. It's difficult to care for a patient when they cannot tell you if they are experiencing any pain or if they need anything. Overall, I learned a lot of useful information from this clinical that I will take with me and care for my patients later on.
Community Health Nursing (NURS 40020)
- Competencies: Applying the nursing process while working with families and communities within a population, developing teaching plans, learning about public health and resources available within a community, using therapeutic communication techniques for practice with establishing therapeutic relationships with clients and learning the role of the nurse within the community.
- Patient teaching: During this class, our group assessed a community within Canton. We noticed that they had several deficiencies within the community that involved a high rate in obesity and heart disease and a knowledge deficit in the resources within the community. We contacted the Massillon Recreation Center and asked if we could provide the community a service by educating on healthy, affordable eating habits and staged a mini health fair where we educated many community members on this topic.
- EBP: Community teaching paper
- Personal Reflection: This class was very beneficial in teaching me the role of a community health nurse. I never realized all the different types of jobs that the community nurse could do. I also didn't realize that there would be so much education involved in public health nursing; so much that they could be considered teachers. I was able to go out into the community and assist these nurses on educating patients and providing care. It was also beneficial in allowing me to learn all the different kinds of resources that are available within the community so I can take this into my own career and provide my future patients with this information.
