Nursing (NURS) 522

Introduction

This course is part of a program of study leading to the Post Master's Diploma: Advanced Nursing Practice or the Master of Nursing degree.

In Nursing 522: Advanced Nursing Practice: Women, students study the primary health care principle of accessibility and the community development principle of connective processes.

Students learn to provide primary health care, including clinical services, to women, including women requiring low-risk prenatal and postpartum care. The care includes wellness counselling of healthy women, management of acute and chronic conditions of women, and referral of conditions requiring management by other health professionals. Students also consider community implications related to the health of women. Students examine trends and issues in the health of women and evidence-based women’s health care and explore areas of women’s health research.

Students complete a minimum of 140 hours of clinical practice focusing on the health of women. You are required to have a successful clinical evaluation in order to achieve a passing grade; additional hours over and above 140 may be required in order to achieve course objectives. By the end of your NURS 522 practicum you must have logged a minimum of 90 hours in providing health care to women, the remaining 50 hours may be obtained in care of clients in other life stages. By the end of NURS 530 you must have logged a total of at least 140 hours of clinical practice in the care of female clients.

Course Goals

After completing this course, students should be able to:

1. critically analyze the primary health care and community development principles of accessibility and connective processes and discuss how these influence the health of clients;
2. implement strategies to enhance accessibility to health services and other determinants of health;
3. implement strategies to foster connections with individual clients and communities;
4. implement strategies to promote culturally sensitive health care;
5. provide evidence-based clinical services to well women (including pregnant women) and to those presenting with acute and chronic health concerns, at a level appropriate to a beginning practitioner, including:
   1. health history and physical examination
   2. clinical decision-making
   3. ordering of laboratory and diagnostic tests
   4. prescription of medications
   5. therapeutic communication
   6. collaborative relationships;
6. refer, to other health professionals, women with health concerns that exceed the scope of practice of a beginning practitioner offering clinical services;
7. demonstrate integration of medical and nursing management of health concerns of women;
8. complete an assessment of a newborn infant (up to 6 weeks of age);
9. synthesize community assessment data to develop inferences about:
   1. accessibility of determinants of health to a community's members
   2. relationships between culture and health status of a community's members
   3. community vulnerabilities and strengths in relation to the health of women
   4. the status of a community's health in relation to women;
10. discuss issues and trends that affect the health of women;
11. review Internet-based sources of information about evidence-based health care for women;
12. suggest areas for research in advanced nursing practice with women.

Course Materials

NURS 522 comprises online, print-based and mobile electronic course materials.

Online Materials

• Introduction: Provides essential information about the course materials, the design of the course, and the procedures you should follow to complete the course successfully
• Schedule: Outlines the timing of course activities
• Units: Contains the 7 units that make up the course
• Assessment: Outlines the assignments/evaluation procedures of the course
• Reference: Listing of required readings, mobile resources, and websites included in the units
• Clinical Practicum: Explains how to complete the clinical practicum requirements of the course
• Community Health Component: Explains how to complete the community assessment requirements of the course

Print Materials

Other Materials

Textbooks, mobile resources, and readings from other Advanced Nursing Practice courses will be used as appropriate.

Course Structure

In this course, you will access health-related websites worldwide. You will also participate in email and computer conferencing with other students. Students are expected to connect to an Internet Service Provider at their own expense.

Technical Requirements

Computer System

In order to successfully complete this course, you must own or have ready access to certain computer hardware and software programs. For complete and up-to-date information on the minimum computer requirements required to complete the graduate nursing courses, visit the Centre for Nursing and Health Studies technical site.

Course Outline

NURS 522 consists of the following 7 units:

Unit 1: Clinical Practicum and Community Assessment: Processes and Requirements
Unit 1 provides an overview of the processes and requirements of the clinical practicum and community assessment of NURS 522. As well, the unit poses questions for you to consider during your clinical practicum and community assessment, about the health status of women and the influence of accessibility and connective processes on health status.

Unit 2: Primary Health Care and Nurse Practitioners: Accessibility
NURS 522 focuses on the primary health care principle of accessibility. In this unit, students examine factors that influence accessibility, particularly the factors of gender and culture. Students consider how accessibility and culture can affect the care of clients, particularly women, both as individuals and as a community. Students also examine the community assessment completed to date and consider the adequacy of the cultural data that has been collected thus far.

Unit 3: Community Development and Nurse Practitioners: Connective Processes
In this unit, students explore the community development principle connective processes, examine a community for evidence of connective processes, and evaluate personal effectiveness in connecting with individuals and communities.

Unit 4: Well Women
In this unit, students focus on the delivery of extended health services to well women, including pregnant women. Students study the Functional Health Patterns and consider health promotion/illness prevention opportunities for adult women.

Unit 5: Women with Acute Presentations
In this unit, students study common acute presentations of women along with therapeutic interventions. The unit also includes content related to an acute presentation of pregnancy: management of labour and delivery and immediate newborn care. The course does not prepare students to competently attend a labour and delivery and students are not expected to attend a labour and delivery in the clinical practicum of the course. The content is included to prepare students to provide health teaching to clients related to the labour and delivery experience.

Unit 6: Women with Chronic Presentations
In Unit 6, students learn about chronic conditions that may present in women. Students also learn appropriate health monitoring and health teaching with pregnant women with pre-existing chronic illnesses. In most cases, a woman who presents for pregnancy testing with a pre-existing chronic illness will be referred to a physician who will become her primary caregiver.

Unit 7: Issues, Trends and Research in Women's Health
In the last unit of NURS 522 you review issues and trends that have been presented in the course, consider issues that arise from women's growth and development, and draw conclusions about trends that may influence the health care provided to women in your community. The unit closes with an opportunity to learn about current women's health research projects and generate research questions based on the content of the course.