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Undergraduate Course Descriptions

NUR 110/Development of Unitary Man and Environment Across the Life Span (C is the minimum grade required)

1 course unit (4 credits); offered every semester; open to majors and non majors

This course focuses on holistic human beings and includes the normal biological, physical, and psychosocial dimensions of the development of individuals and families from conception to old age. Emphasis is on the lived experience of human-environment interactions. Primary emphasis is on the individual with some discussion of family and community development. An underlying theme of the course is development of the individual student within the context of caring. The beginning learner will study unitary man from birth to old age and death within the context of holism. Environment is defined as the landscape and geography of human social experience as everyday life. The history, theories, and methodologies of growth and development will be explored as a foundation to explain and predict human lifespan events. The lived experiences of the developing individual will be discussed within the following dimensions: physical cognitive changes; social, emotional, spiritual and personality development; cultural diversity. The concept of caring will be introduced as a foundation for the study of holistic human beings and environment.

 

NUR 200/Pharmacological Interventions (C is the minimum grade required)

1 course unit (4 credits); offered annually (spring); open to majors and non majors
Prerequisite BIO 141 Pre- or Co-requisite BIO 142 SCI III or permission
An introduction to the basic terms, concepts, and principles of drugs, drug therapy, and their effect on human beings with various health problems. The course is designed to introduce nursing majors and non-nursing majors interested in health related fields, and consumers of health care, to drugs and drug therapy. Emphasis is placed upon the therapeutic, adverse, and toxic effects of drugs upon the human body. The course examines the legislative and legal controls relative to drug abuse, dependence, and addiction. The opportunities to raise moral and ethical issues that affect the consumer are integrated throughout the course. Major drug classifications are emphasized and discussed in relation to the lived experiences of wellness and illness of holistic individuals. Drug classifications and effects are considered in relation to providers and consumers of health care.

NUR 202/Nutrition Through Life Span (C is the minimum grade required)

1 course unit (4 credits); offered annually (fall); open to majors and non majors
This course is intended to give the student a comprehensive overview of basic nutrition principles. Primary focus is directed toward the nutrient groups and their function in human physiology. Present knowledge about each nutrient is related to current issues in nutrition research and practice. Nutrition controversies faced by consumers are covered. This basic knowledge is applied by examining the relationship between nutrition and health (wellness-illness) across the lifespan. The course examines the impact of cultural, psychosocial, historical, political and economic influences on the lived experience of nutrition during developmental stages of the life cycle. Students will also be prepared to continue the study of nutrition at a more advanced level in both its normal and therapeutic applications.

NUR 210/Professional Role Development I: Caring Within the Learner Role (C is the minimum grade required)

1 course unit (4 credits); offered annually (fall); open to majors and to non-majors with permission of chairperson
Professional Role Development I is designed to examine the concepts of caring, power and empowerment, and autonomy and advocacy as related to nursing using the models of Watson, Benner, and Rogers. Focus is on the conceptual and historical bases of professional nursing with an emphasis on caring within the humanitarian ethic and the learner role as related to the philosophy and organizing framework of Nursing. The learner role will be examined from various perspectives including: stages of professional development, domains of practice, development of critical thinking, and historical and contextual dimensions. The following concepts are also explored: socialization, self-development, gender issues, and systems theory. The role of the student from novice to expert learner is discussed using the Benner model and including the learner sub roles of researcher, scholar, and scientist.

NUR 220/Wellness Promotion Across the Life Span (C is the minimum grade required)

1 course unit (4 credits, 30 hours of community engaged learning); offered annually (fall); open to majors and to non-majors with permission of chairperson
This course addresses human activities that are directed toward sustaining, developing, or enhancing wellness and self-actualization at all stages of development and across the life span. Topics include: concepts of health, wellness evaluation, introduction to teaching and learning theory, values clarification, and communication and facilitative interaction focused on wellness. In addition, students will discuss family systems theory, social, environmental, and economic issues related to wellness promotion and access to health care. An underlying theme in this course is wellness promotion of the student with a focus on the use of self in wellness promotion across the life span. Specific interventions for lifestyle changes will be discussed and include coping and stress management, health education, diet management and weight control, social support, exercise and physical fitness, and issues related to smoking, alcohol, and other forms of substance abuse. Opportunities for interactive and experiential learning are provided in Nursing Clinical Laboratory.

NUR 230/Holistic Health Assessment (C is the minimum grade required)

1 course unit (4 credits); offered annually (spring)
Prerequisites: SCI 111, BIO 141, BIO 142, BIO 144, NUR 202, 210, 220, PSY 101

This course will introduce the novice learner to assessment of the lived experiences of human beings within their environment, throughout the lifespan, and within the context of caring and transcultural human diversity. The dynamics of wellness and illness are explored in the holistic health assessment of young persons to aging adults. Students will develop the ability to assess people and formulate nursing diagnoses derived from observation, interview techniques, the collection and analyzing of subjective data from a health history, and the interpretation of objective data obtained through physical examination skills. These modalities will be practiced on each other in the clinical laboratory setting and with clients in selected health related settings. Knowledge from the science of nursing, human development, the humanities, arts, natural and behavioral sciences will be integrated into the assessment of the whole person through consensual caring validation. This course continues the preparation of the student as an empowered autonomous practitioner, capable of independent clinical judgments and decision making.

NUR 240/Holistic Health Interventions Throughout the Life Span (C is the minimum grade required)

1 course unit (4 credits); (9 clinical hours); offered annually (spring)
Prerequisites: SCI 111, BIO 141, BIO 142, BIO 144, NUR 202, 210, 220, PSY 101
This course is designed to permit the novice learner to acquire, demonstrate, and implement common nursing actions in order to respond to the lived experiences and actions of unitary persons in wellness and illness. Beginning level technologies and clinical applications to individual technologies and clinical applications to individual client-care situations will be discussed and demonstrated in the Clinical Learning Laboratory utilizing dialogue as content with the teacher as expert learner and the student as novice learner. Opportunities for the student to use Nursing process in the care of diverse individuals across the life span will be provided in clinical experiences is health care facilities. Mastery of identified skills will be demonstrated by the novice learner in both the Clinical Learning laboratory and in the health care facility. Nursing philosophy of humanistic caring provides the framework for holistic nursing interventions related to enhancing, protecting, and preserving health functioning of individual clients across the life span. The human being in interaction with his environment is the focus of study. The dimensions of Watson’s ten curative factors are explored. Emphasis is placed on concepts and principles that will permit the novice to enter clinical situations in a safe and efficient manner. Concepts studied in the context of caring are related to environmental contextual influences, interactive processes, and problem solving. Students will perform protective, enhancing, and preservative interventions with individuals across the life span and with varied lived health experiences. Opportunity is provided for the student to begin to integrate role responsibility in the health care delivery system.

NUR 310/Professional Role Development II: Caring Within the Clinician Role (C is the minimum grade required)

1 course unit (4 credits); offered annually (fall)
Prerequisites: 200 level required nursing courses
Focuses on professional role development and socialization to the clinician role within Nursing framework of caring and Benner’s model of clinical development (novice to expert). Clinical application of this conceptual model to the experiences of wellness and illness is emphasized based on the works of Watson, Benner, and Rogers as explicated within Nursing philosophy. Other nursing theories/models are also discussed from a nursing practice perspective. The clinician role is further developed emphasizing the concepts of professionalism (power and empowerment, accountability, collaboration, autonomy, and advocacy), ethical decision making (including critical thinking, clinical decision making, and Nursing process). The clinician sub roles of care giver, critical thinker, teacher, collaborator, and user of nursing theory are also discussed. The concept of diversity, as applied to the challenges in health care delivery, is also emphasized in this course.

NUR 320/Caring in Childbearing Family Health/Science (C is the minimum grade required)

1 course unit (4 credits); offered annually (fall)
Prerequisite: 200 level required nursing courses,NUR 310; Concurrent: NUR 324
A developmental family-centered approach to Nursing of families, parents, and their infants during the maternity cycle. Critical thinking with an emphasis on shared decision making skills is developed within the family construct. This course provides a knowledge base from which to apply holistic nursing care to the lived experiences of the childbearing family. The human being is viewed as a member of the family within the context of environment. Both family and family members are viewed as client. Ethical dilemmas as they are related to the childbearing family are explored along with the concepts of caring, stress-coping, power and empowerment. Family developmental theory, body image, parenting, attachment and loss, domestic violence, and diversity are also included as well as an introduction to research findings within the context of the maternity cycle.

NUR 324/Caring in Childbearing Family Health/Practice (C is the minimum grade required)

1 course unit (4 credits); (9 clinical hours); offered annually (fall)
Pre or Co-requisite: NUR 320
Clinical practice with childbearing families. Consideration is given to care of the family in the community as well as the acute care facility. Critical thinking skills are emphasized in the use of Nursing process in the lived experience of wellness-illness wherein the student applies nursing care principles and concepts in the care of childbearing women, parents, their families, and newborn infants in hospitals, clinics, and at home.

NUR 328/Research for Health Related and Social Sciences (C is the minimum grade required)

1 course unit (4 credits); offered every semester
Pre or Co-requisite STA 115
Open to majors and non-majors. Fulfills Social Sciences – process course requirement. An introduction to the research process as it applies to the art and science of nursing. The focus is on the nurse as a consumer of research. Nursing models and theories for the basis of research are explored and related to the development of critical thinking. Understanding of the research process and the application of research findings in all settings where nurses care for human beings is emphasized. In addition to traditional research methods, other perspectives which cannot be explained or understood with positivistic, deterministic, and materialistic research methods will be discussed. Critical analysis of quantitative and qualitative research literature and utilization of research findings for decision-making in nursing practice are examined.

NUR 330/Caring in Adult and Elder Health I/ Science (C is the minimum grade required)

1 course unit (4 credits); offered annually (spring)
Prerequisites: 200 level nursing courses, NUR 310, 320, 324
Co-requisites: 334
Focus is on the concept of caring within the novice clinician role and the developmental process related to the lived experience of wellness and illness of adult and elder clients within a family system. Bio-psycho-social dimensions and patterns are discussed and emphasis is placed on critical thinking and use of Nursing process in examining major health concerns of adults and elders and their relation to stress and coping within the context of social, economic, and cultural forces. Topics include coping and illness across the life span of adults and elders, common stressors and their management (surgery, infectious disease, altered body image, shock), coping with problems of gas transport, coping with cancer, coping with problems of sexuality and reproduction, and coping with problems of protection.

NUR 334/Caring in Adult and Elder Health I/Practice (C is the minimum grade required)

1 course unit (4 credits); (9 clinical hours); offered annually (spring)
Pre-or Co-requisite: NUR 330
Nursing practice experience as a novice clinician in implementing Nursing process in the care of primarily adult and elder clients coping with varied lived experiences of wellness and illness within the family system. Acute care settings are utilized with an emphasis on nursing diagnoses and nursing interventions as well as evaluation of nursing care. Clinical decision making skills are developed.

NUR 340/Caring in Psychosocial Health Across the Life Span (C is the minimum grade required)

1 course unit (4 credits); (1.5 class hours, 4.5 clinical hours); offered every semester
Prerequisites: 200 level nursing courses
Pre or Co-requisite: NUR 310
This course is designed to examine concepts of caring, power, and empowerment in relation to the lived experience of mental health. Emphasis is placed on understanding care of the mentally ill throughout history and the directions historical perspective provides for contemporary care. Organizations designed to empower both the mentally ill and their families are discussed. The psychiatric interview as the basis for data generation is examined. Also examined are the concepts of mental wellness, family systems theory relating to mental health, chronic anxiety, physiologically based mental illness, and nursing interventions to promote mental health. The special problems of outwardly and inwardly channeled aggression are also studied. The problems of the mentally ill homeless are examined as well as current research endeavors and the implications of those studies for the future practice of nursing. Learning is guided by the philosophy and the organizing framework of Nursing. Clinical practice experiences are provided in health care settings with clients across the life span with varied lived mental health experiences. Exploration of the evolving role of professional nursing in relation to the care of the mentally ill is emphasized.

NUR 344/Caring in Child Health/Science/Practice (C is the minimum grade required)

1 course unit (4 credits); (2 class hours, 3 clinical hours); offered every semester
Prerequisite: 200 level nursing courses;
Pre or Co-requisite: NUR 310
A holistic caring approach to the study of family centered nursing care of children and their families throughout the lived health experience. Emphasis is placed on the interrelated emotional, cultural, psychosocial, environmental, and physical health experiences of the family unit and the effect of these forces upon the normal growth, development, and maturation of children and adolescents. The child and family are discussed as a unit that has the potential for coping with stressors, which are developmental, contextual, or health related. Caring strategies to assist families with children are described as those that enhance, protect or preserve optimum levels of wellness. The course is designed to impart knowledge, enhance critical thinking, and to foster observational, communication, and assessment skills central to nursing diagnosis, creative problem solving, planning, implementation, and evaluation of Nursing care of children. The content is divided into units and offered during the fall and spring semester of the junior year. Each student has weekly clinical practice in either an outpatient clinic, community resource facility, or an acute care setting. Additionally, several clinical case study seminars, correlated with course content, are offered.

NUR 420/Caring in Adult and Elder Health II/Science (C is the minimum grade required)

1 course unit (4 credits); offered annually (fall)
Prerequisite: 300 level nursing courses
Pre or Co-requisite: NUR 410. Concurrent: 424
Focus is on the concepts of caring and developmental processes related to wellness and illness of adult and elder clients within a family system. Emphasis is placed on critical thinking and use of Nursing process in examining major health problems in relation to stress and coping within the context of social and economic forces and culturally diverse backgrounds. Topics include: coping and illness in adult and elder clients, common stressors and their management (chronic illness, pain, fluid and electrolyte imbalance, sensory alteration), coping with problems of regulation and metabolism, nutrition and elimination, and coping with sensorimotor problems.

NUR 424/Caring in Adult and Elder II/Practice (C is the minimum grade required)

1 course unit (4 credits); (9 clinical hours); offered annually (fall)
Prerequisite or concurrent: NUR 420

Application of nursing knowledge to the lived experience of adult and elder clients within a family system with major health problems. Clinical experience as provided in acute care and tertiary settings with an emphasis on nursing diagnoses and interventions as well as evaluation of Nursing care and development of clinical decision making skills.

NUR 434/Professional Practice Across the Life Span (C is the minimum grade required)

1 course unit (4 credits); (9 clinical hours); offered annually (fall)
Enrollment limited to returning RN students
Prerequisite or concurrent: NURS 310
Focus is on the concepts of caring and the developmental process related to wellness and illness of clients across the life span and within the family system. Emphasis is placed on critical thinking and use of Nursing process in examining stress and coping within the context of social and economic forces and culturally diverse backgrounds. Clinical experiences take place in a variety of settings where emphasis is placed on the application of nursing knowledge to the lived experience of human health care across the life span.

NUR 440/Caring in Community Health/Science (C is the minimum grade required)

1 course unit (4 credits); offered annually (spring)
Prerequisite: 300 level nursing courses, NUR 410, 420/424, Concurrent: NUR 444
This course focuses on the concepts of caring, power, and empowerment as they relate to the lived health experience of populations and communities. Students discuss the role of the nurse in population focused practice with the community as the client of care. Topics include epidemiology, the concepts of community, community health nursing, populations and aggregates, family health, and diversity and ethical decision making in community health nursing. In addition, students will analyze and evaluate models for community assessment and program planning screening methodologies, management strategies, and research findings related to community health nursing. Other topics discussed include health of the home care population, environmental health and safety, school health, hospice care, discharge planning, community health advocacy, and health care of specific subpopulations within the community. Current social issues and health problems affecting the community will be identified and discussed.

NUR 444/Caring in Community Health/Practice (C is the minimum grade required)

1 course unit (4 credits); (9 clinical hours); offered annually (spring)
Prerequisite or concurrent: NUR 440
Clinical nursing practice related to the lived experience of health of communities. Emphasis is on population focused experience. Students will perform protective, enhancing, and preservative interventions with communities in a variety of settings. Settings may include home care agencies, public health agencies, outpatient clinics, day care programs, prisons, early intervention programs, homeless shelters, schools, industry, and mental health clinics.

NUR 460/Professional Development III: Capstone Seminar:Leadership and Management in Nursing (C is the minimum grade required)

1 course unit (4 credits); (1.5 class hours, 4.5 practice hours); offered annually (spring)
Prerequisite: 300 level nursing courses, NUR 410, 420, and 424 Corequisite or prerequisite NUR 440, 444
This course provides an opportunity to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize Nursing knowledge base with a primary focus on Nursing leadership role. Through practice experiences and seminar discussions, students will apply leadership concepts and theories in the practice and management of professional nursing. Students will also evaluate the outcomes of their own activities in enhancing the effectiveness of the nurse leader as a manager, coordinator of care, change agent, and role model.

NUR 499/Independent Study

1-4 cr.
Prerequisites: Approval of advisor and Nursing Student Affairs Committee at least two weeks prior to registration and concurrent with major nursing courses
Intensive individual study of a special problem in nursing.

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TCNJ's Department of Nursing is not accepting transfers into our four year traditional bachelor’s of science in nursing program at this time. We are accepting applications for the ABSN program for May 2025.Learn More
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