Course Description/Nursing 300

As you move forward in this process, an understanding of the course in which you will be involved is important. Below you will find the description of the Transition to Nursing Practice Course. Please feel free to discuss any questions or concerns with your faculty contact.

NUR 300: Transition to Nursing Practice
(4 credit hours)

• NUR 300 facilitates the students’ transition to the role of the associate degree nurse in the clinical practice setting. The course assists the student in synthesizing the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors learned in previous courses with current health care issues and management strategies that affect nursing practice.
• Students are also provided the opportunity to identify and develop strategies to cope with the symptoms and stressors resulting from reality shock.
• Students implement all levels of prevention (health promotion, maintenance, restoration) during this course to help clients meet or adapt to changing health care needs.
• The nursing process as a clinical decision-making strategy and the clinical competencies of the associate degree nurse continue to be emphasized and expanded.
• The theory component of the course utilizes the roles of the nurse for associate degree nursing programs: member within the discipline of nursing, provider of care and manager of care. This is actualized through the concepts of professionalism, political and communication issues, self-management, and priority-setting. These topics are incorporated with resource management, management styles, assignment making and delegation.
• Increased independence is achieved through application of the nursing process providing caring interventions and managing care for groups of clients.
• Critical thinking skills and the professional nurse’s commitment to life-long learning to ensure professional growth and clinical competence are integrated into the course concepts.
• Preceptor-based clinical experiences across the lifespan occur in a variety of clinical settings and emphasize the management of groups of clients and the application of the theoretical concepts in the practice setting.
• Collaboration and the exchange of ideas between the preceptor, student, other healthcare team members, and clients enhance clinical decision-making.
• NUR 300 is taught in an accelerated summer session; class, lab, and credit hours are calculated according to the conventional semester formula.