MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF NURSING

NURSING 410 Practicum in Community Health Nursing

COURSE SYLLABUS SUMMER, 2004

Course Chairperson: Jacqueline Wright Associate Professor

NUR410 syllabus, page 1

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF NURSING Course Number: Course Tiles: Course Placement: Credit Hours:

NUR 410 PRACTICUM IN COMMUNITY HEALTH NURSING Level III 3 (0-9)

Course Description: Clinical experience in community health nursing focusing on the application of public health and nursing principles in the care of individuals/families and populations in a variety of community-based settings. Course Objectives: 1. Apply strategies for assessment, planning, intervention and evaluation that are appropriate to individual/family and population clients in community settings. 2. Provide comprehensive assessment data to support community health nursing diagnoses, including epidemiological, family, and community data. 3. Apply established research findings as a basis for making judgments in community health nursing practice. 4. Describe major legal, social, cultural, political and economic issues relevant to the delivery of community-based nursing care. 5. Coordinate appropriate community resources in the care of the individual/family or population client. 6. Accept individual responsibility and accountability in community health nursing practice. 7. Demonstrate the professional role characterized by critical thinking, self-directed learning, and effective communication and leadership skills. 8. Demonstrate an understanding of the uniqueness of self and client in community health nursing

practice.

NUR410 syllabus, page 2

Required Texts: •

Allender and Spradley. (2001)

•

Chin, J. (Ed., 2000). Control of communicable diseases manual (17th ed.). Washington, D.C.: The American Public Health Association.

Supplementary resources: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2000). Healthy People 2010 (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Available from Course Chair and at http://www.healthypeople.gov/document/ Course Chairperson: Jacqueline Wright [email protected] Office: 355-2337

Course Faculty: Faculty by section and clinical site are: Section 1: Jacqueline Wright, Walnut Street School and Cristo Rey Community Center Section 2: Judith Strunk Ingham County Health Department, Lansing Note: • Individual faculty will provide students with additional information about office hours and telephone numbers during the first week of the semester. • Items for faculty mailboxes are to be dropped off at Student Affairs, 1st floor Life Sciences. Instructional Model: Students participate in community health nursing clinical experiences and conferences/seminars nine (9) hours per week (126 hours for 14 clinical weeks). Faculty will provide students with information about specific learning opportunities and expectations during the first week of clinical. All students are expected to meet course and College of Nursing clinical expectations outlined below and in the CON Undergraduate Student Handbook.

NUR410 syllabus, page 3

NUR 410 Basic Clinical Expectations: 1. Compliance with immunization, blood borne pathogens, CPR and HIPPA regulations Each student required to print a copy of their Immunization compliance letter and present it to their clinical faculty on the first day at the clinical site. Compliance records and the associated letter (signed by the University Physician) is available at www.hcpimmunize.msu.edu. 2. Clinical preparation and professional behavior. Expectations for student conduct during the semester include: a. Develop active and measurable personal learning objectives for clinical practice based on course objectives/requirements, clinical learning opportunities, and personal interests. b. Structure and direct own learning activities to facilitate maximal attainment of personal and course objectives. c. Apply promptly all feedback (verbal and written) from faculty to future performance. d. Record daily clinical plans and activities by maintaining a clinical activity calendar. e. Document promptly following each client-related encounter—for both family and population care delivery. f. Evaluate learning activities and progress in meeting objectives through weekly critical reflections and midterm/endterm evaluations. g. Evaluate course, clinical faculty at the end of the semester using the online SIRS evaluations. h. Initiate collaboration with clinical faculty to facilitate identification and achievement of personal goals and course requirements. Students must carryout each clinical day with responsibility and accountability, as evidenced by: a. Appropriate community health nursing attire & MSU name tag. Community health nursing attire differs from the usual CON Uniform described in the Student Handbook in that it includes 1) non-white ‘business casual’ slacks/skirt, and 2) non-white leather shoes. Additionally, a suitable ‘business casual’ shirt may replace the uniform CON polo shirt if approved by faculty.

b. Written, evidence-based plans prepared prior to the start of the clinical day for all planned client encounters. c. Efficient management and use of clinical time, including priority setting and planned back-up activities for the inevitable day when anticipated plans collapse. d. Active, meaningful participation in group/team clinical activities. e. Appropriate expression of own thoughts, feelings, needs and concerns. f. Having own vehicle at clinical site. 3. Patient confidentiality, documentation and correspondence. Nursing 410 patient confidentiality guidelines will be described during orientation and must be followed at all times. Each student must sign the ‘NUR 410 Confidentiality Agreement’ prior to initiating clinical activities. Students must document all community health nursing practice activities appropriately each clinical week, and provide midterm and endterm reports to referring agencies for all family and population clients followed. All written correspondence (including email) with agencies, other health professionals, clients, and others must be reviewed by faculty prior to transmittal. A copy is to be placed in the appropriate documentation folder. NUR410 syllabus, page 4

4. Clinical Conferences/ Seminars. Conferences will occur each clinical day for the purpose of enhancing student learning and integrating theoretical concepts with community health practice. Students are expected to share and discuss clinical activities and encounters, bring up issues for group discussion and problem solving, discuss learning needs, and share knowledge/ skills/ feelings relevant to the practice of community health nursing. Each student will facilitate one brief content-specific seminar to his or her clinical group. 5. Folders. Students are to submit personal folders each week to clinical faculty that include: a) Objectives: List of personal objectives for the semester. b) Clinical calendar: Ongoing ‘NURS 410 Clinical Calendar’ of planned and actual weekly activities. c) Critical reflections journal: Weekly reflections on experiences that address the following questions: 1) What concepts/theory content and research did I apply this week? 2) What learning questions were raised by this week’s experiences. Where will I get the answer these questions? 3) What did I learn this week in relation to course and personal objectives? 4) What thoughts and feelings do I have about this week’s experiences? d) Assignments and other material requested by your clinical faculty, including midterm and endterm evaluations. Note: The date/time and method of submission of weekly folders will be arranged with faculty. All folder material must be typed. 6. Nursing research application. Each student is required to prepare a one-page analysis of 2 research articles during the first half of the semester. The articles chosen for analysis must: 1) be directly applicable to the student’s clinical practice in 410. One article should inform familyfocused care delivery and one article inform population-focused care delivery. 2) be published in peer-reviewed research journals within the last 5 years. 3) be approved by the clinical faculty. The 1 page, single spaced analysis of each research analysis using the following format is to be turned in by midterm: a) Reference the article and source using APA format b) Describe the community health issue studied and critique the research question, findings and discussion. c) Discuss applicability of the research to nursing care delivered to population/family clients. A copy of the article must be attached to each submitted annotation. 7. Nursing care delivery. Each student is to provide community/public health nursing services to both individual/family and population clients and to actively inform health policy. Students may also participate in public health observational experiences. Levels of nursing care delivery in the course are described below. NUR410 syllabus, page 5

Levels of nursing care delivery in 410: 1. Family-focused care: Improving the health status of families and individuals in the community. Each student provides family-focused care to a caseload of community-based clients. Caseloads are obtained from community-based primary care providers and from school nurses. Care is usually delivered in home and/or school settings. • Care delivered to individuals is provided within the context of their family, and families are considered within the context of their community. • Students are expected to partner with families and empower them with the knowledge and skills necessary to meet their identified health needs. Continuity across the continuum of care is emphasized. 2. Population-focused care: Improving the health status of identified populations. Students work individually or in groups to assess, diagnose, plan and implement specific population-focused health programs that meet identified needs of a defined community group. • This experience is designed to provide an opportunity to develop personal knowledge and skill in community assessment and working with populations to improve their health. • All population-focused care must address a health need identified by the community and use a collaborative approach to the provision of care. • Students are expected to partner with community members and empower them to meet their identified health needs. • A population-focused report, following ‘Population-focused Care Report Guidelines,’ will be presented to all Monday/Wednesday clinical group members in a joint group meeting and submitted to clinical faculty on the final clinical day. Examples include: nutrition education with parents, adolescents and/or school aged children; health teaching to senior citizens; being part of a community group planning a health fair or other community event; participating in a health promotion project such as development of a neighborhood exercise program in a school. 3. System-focused care: Improving the health of populations by impacting political processes. Working individually or in groups, students work to impact the health of the public as a whole through involvement in grass-roots, legislative, and/or health-policy promoting activities. • ‘Senior Year Health Policy Focus’ describes this experience. • Activity options will be presented during orientation and throughout the year on ANGEL. • Each student is to maintain a policy portfolio throughout their senior the year containing policy learning objectives, activity reflections, and reports. 4. Public health observational experiences are arranged to provide a broader exposure to community/public health. These include a maximum of two ½ to 1-day long participant observational experiences in occupational health, school health, correctional health, public health nursing, communicable disease nursing, immunizations, maternal child health, homeless health, and environmental health. Sign-up sheets will be available the second clinical week. Preparatory and reflective activities are required for each experience.

NUR410 syllabus, page 6

Attendance Policies: Attendance at all clinical experiences (each clinical day) is required. A student who cannot attend a clinical experience must notify their clinical instructor prior to the start of the clinical day using the defined call-in protocol. Any unexcused absence may be cause for student withdrawal from the course. Absences are excused at the discretion of the clinical instructor. Clinical instructors will provide students with information on the first clinical day regarding how to notify them of an anticipated absence from a clinical experience (call-in protocol). A student who misses a clinical experience may be required to 1) provide appropriate a written excuse from a health care provider for incidents of illness/injury, and 2) make-up the clinical time. Students with unexcused absences or excessive absences from clinical that are in jeopardy of failing to meet course objectives may be asked to withdraw or receive a ‘0’ in the course. Any student who is not prepared to provide safe nursing care at a given clinical experience for any reason (including previous absence from clinical experiences, insufficient preparation for client encounters, and incomplete documentation of immunization and CPR status) may be sent home from that clinical experience. Bad Weather Procedures: Clinical instructors will provide students with information the first day of clinical regarding procedures for the event of severe inclement weather. Evaluation: Each student will have a formal mid and end semester conference with their clinical faculty. Each student will be expected to submit a completed self-evaluation prior to the mid and end semester conferences. Progress toward goals will be discussed at mid-semester, identifying strengths and weaknesses in performance and an action plan formulated. The final clinical grade will reflect performance over the semester in achieving course objectives. The standard University numerical grading system will be used to assign course grades. A student must obtain a course grade of > 2.0 in order to pass the course. • Grades evidencing the level of performance in the course will be submitted once students have: a. Returned their black community nursing bag to the Media Lab b. Completed the online SIRS evaluations of course and clinical faculty. • A 0.0 grade will be given for unsafe or dishonest behavior, unexcused absences and failure to meet minimal course expectations. The following scale will be used for grade determination: Percent 100 - 94 93 - 89 88 - 84 83 - 79 78 - 75 74 - 70 65 - 69