Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

This course is designed to formalize the clinical judgments, knowledge and skills necessary in safe, registered nurse practice. Faculty/Clinical Teaching Associate/Student Triad Model provides a context that allows the student to experience the nursing role in a selected setting, balancing demands of professional nursing and lifelong learner. Analysis and reflection throughout the clinical experience provide the student with evaluative criteria against which they can judge their own performance and develop a practice framework. Includes seminar, self-directed study and clinical experience.

Prerequisites: For NRS 224: NRS 110; NRS 111; NRS 112; NRS 230, 231,232, 233, NRS 221, NRS 222

By the end of the course, the student will be able to:
1. Make sound clinical judgments based on an increasingly complex knowledge base and experience in care selected populations.
2. Set priorities in the provision of care with attention to client needs and available resources.
3. Practice self-reflection and self-analysis and identify areas for improvement.
4. Advocate for inclusion of client/family uniqueness in all aspects of care.
5. Identify costs and benefits of resource options for client care.
6. Regularly evaluate and augment own leadership in client and team situations in the selected population.
7. Delegate to and evaluate others ensuring that the task is within their scope of practice.
8. Access, evaluate and integrate new learning into practice.
9. Identify a vision and influence others to share the vision to support quality of care.
10. Demonstrate commitment to new and continuing learning opportunities; expand repertoire of learning activities and experiences
with other health care team members, especially those who hold different points of view.
11. Demonstrate competent performance when evaluated against national standards and criteria accepted in selected populations
and/or settings.
12. Promote collaborative teamwork and empower others.

Intended Outcomes for the course:

1. Make sound clinical judgments based on an increasingly complex knowledge base, best practice evidence and experience in care of selected populations.

2. Set priorities in the provision of care with attention to patient needs and preferences, available resources and ethical aspects of patient care.

3. Practice self-reflection and self-analysis to identify areas for improvement.

4. Advocates for and provides individualized care for patients and families.

5. Evaluate and improve own leadership skills through collaboration with the health care team.

6. Delegate or assign responsibilities appropriately taking into consideration the other’s scope of practice or training.

7. Integrates concepts of resource utilization, quality improvement and systems to enhance care delivery across the continuum of care.

8. Articulate a personal view of nursing practice that exemplifies quality and safety in care.

9. Demonstrate competent performance when evaluated against national standards and criteria.

Clinical Integrated Practicum 

Discussion groups

Required Readings
Clinical evaluation
Project/Papers
Multiple choice exams
Lab performance evaluation

Discussion groups

Required Readings
Clinical Integrated Practicum evaluation
Project/Papers
Multiple choice exams
Lab performance evaluation

Themes, Concepts & Issues:

• Nursing Management & Leadership
  • Resource utilization
  • Quality improvement
  • Change management
  • Conflict management
  • Communication in the professional setting and within the interdisciplinary team
  • Planning and directing nursing care for individuals,
  • Delegating and supervision in the professional setting
  • Collaborating in the professional setting
• Ethics
  • Re-visit Silence Kills or similar resource. 
  • Ethics committees and how dilemmas are approached to promote autonomy and patient-centered care
• Role of the new graduate RN
  • Standards of practice education
  • Transition to professional practice
  • Portfolio development
  • Interview skills
  • Organization skills & priority setting
  • Self-care
• Informatics
• Research and Evidence Based Practice

Skills:  This is not an exhaustive list but is a minimum skill set to be completed anytime throughout  NRS 221, NRS 222 or NRS 224
Accumulative review
Delegation
Action in Crisis
Interviewing Skills
Postmortum care