Overview
NURS 536: NP Clinical Practicum I is part of the Master of Nursing: Nurse Practitioner (MN-NP) degree and the Post-Masters Diploma: Nurse Practitioner (PMD-NP) program.
In NURS 536, you will complete 200 hours of supervised clinical practicum to support attainment of the Entry-Level Competencies for Nurse Practitioners (College of Registered Nurses of Alberta [CRNA], 2023). This is the first clinical practicum in the program.
You will provide health promotion, disease prevention, and acute and chronic care to clients across the life span. You will demonstrate a beginning level of autonomy in assessment, clinical decision-making, communication, and professional leadership.
You will develop clinical expertise and begin to establish your role identity as a nurse practitioner. Increasing independence in clinical decision-making and diagnostic reasoning is expected over the course of the practicum.
Emphasis is placed on direct client care experiences to develop the knowledge and skills necessary for safe and effective practice. You will complete focused and comprehensive assessments, apply differential diagnosis processes to inform clinical decisions, select appropriate interventions (including diagnostic tests, medications, and referrals), and document effectively in client health records.
Outline
NURS 536 is a paced course delivered over 13 weeks using a blended learning approach that combines asynchronous online learning and regular synchronous virtual sessions. The course consists of the following components:
- Clinical practicum (200 hours)
In this course you will complete 200 hours of supervised clinical practicum with exposure to clients across the lifespan and in a variety of settings. Clinical faculty, who are licensed nurse practitioners, support evaluation of your clinical performance and role development and engage with you during clinical learning seminars.
Details regarding the clinical practicum experience are provided in the NP Clinical Practicum Guide available in your Brightspace course.
- Diagnostic testing modules
A series of diagnostic testing modules will be provided in the course and must be successfully completed.
- Clinical learning seminars
Synchronous clinical learning seminars will be held via Microsoft Teams.
Learning outcomes
After completing this course, you will be able to:
- Obtain informed consent according to legislation and regulatory requirements;
- Establish the reason for client encounter through observation and questioning;
- Select and apply appropriate, evidence-based assessment techniques and tools to comprehensively assess a client’s clinical presentation;
- Analyze and synthesize information from multiple sources to identify client needs and inform diagnoses, including:
- Health, pharmacologic, and social history
- Review of systems
- Physical examination
- Laboratory and diagnostic tests
- A shared understanding of the client’s biophysical, behavioural, cultural, ethnic, and spiritual circumstances, developmental life stage, gender expression, and social determinants of health;
- Interpret and synthesize findings from screening, diagnostic, and point-of-care tests, distinguishing normal from abnormal results and explaining their clinical significance and implications for care;
- Explain and apply the principles of resource stewardship in selecting appropriate diagnostic tests;
- Demonstrate professional development and beginning role competence as a nurse practitioner through participation in clinical learning activities, including development and use of a clinical learning plan, and progressive clinical evaluation.
Evaluation
The assessment structure for NURS 536 is based on the following course activities as indicated. The final grade for the course is a pass/fail mark based on your performance on these course activities.
| Activity | Weight |
| Participation activities | Pass/Fail |
| Diagnostic testing modules | Pass/Fail |
| Clinical learning plan | Pass/Fail |
| Progressive clinical evaluation | Pass/Fail |
| Final clinical evaluation | Pass/Fail |
Materials
Digital course materials
Diagnostic testing modules (asynchronous material) will be provided in the course.
Textbooks and readings from other Nurse Practitioner courses will be used as appropriate.