COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
304 ASHFORD UNIVERSITY
MPH 699 Public Health Capstone/Culminating
Experience 3 Credits
The public health capstone is an opportunity for students to work on a
public health project that is of particular interest to them. The goal is for
students to synthesize, integrate and apply the skills and competencies
they have acquired to a public health problem that approximates a
professional practice experience. The project is done under the
direction of a faculty member. Prerequisite: MPH 605.
NUR Nursing
NUR 300 Professional Role Development &
Practice in Nursing 3 Credits
This course focuses on the baccalaureate-prepared nurse’s role(s) in
professional practice, and the alignment of nursing theories with
practice and research. The course surveys important changes that have
occurred in the nursing profession over the years, such as the ANCC
Magnet Recognition Program. The course will cover quality and safety
education for nurses (QSEN), the nursing scope of practice as defined
by the American Nurses Association (ANA), the Institute of Medicine’s
(IOM’s) core competencies in collaborative care, nursing ethics,
education, health promotion, and disease prevention, as they relate to
professional nursing roles. Students will apply critical thinking,
evidence-based practice (EBP), and continuous quality improvement
(CQI) to professional nursing practice. This course includes 20 hours of
practice experience activities. Prerequisites: ENG 328..
NUR 302 Transcultural Nursing Care 3 Credits
This course focuses on the differences and similarities among cultures
with respect to human care, health, and illness and how these
considerations apply to real-world nursing practices. Students enrolled
in the course develop their scientific and humanistic knowledge by
integrating their own history, life experiences, beliefs, and values and
by assessing how these factors have the potential to impact the ways in
which they provide culturally competent care. Prerequisite: NUR 300.
NUR 304 Health Assessment 3 Credits
This course prepares RN to BSN students to synthesize the
comprehensive health assessment. Emphasis is placed on the
acquisition, processing, and interpretation of data collected from clients
of all ages. A physical, psychological, sociocultural, and spiritual
approach, which is supported by evidence-based practices is used to
assess the client and to incorporate consideration of the client's needs,
state of wellness, developmental level, and response to life experiences.
Students also evaluate current health policy and technology to support
health assessment to improve community health. Prerequisite: NUR
302.
NUR 306 Nursing Research 3 Credits
This course provides the scientific foundation for professional practice.
It introduces the student to the basic research methodologies and
statistical concepts, and qualitative, quantitative, and epidemiologic
research designs. Research methods and findings are appraised and
applied within the framework of evidence based professional practice.
Research proposal development as a foundation for nursing inquiry is
emphasized. Prerequisite: NUR 300.
NUR 400 Family Health Nursing 3 Credits
Major theoretical models and frameworks for developing clinical skills
in assessing, diagnosing, planning, implementing, and evaluating
holistic nursing interventions across the family life cycle are presented.
Contemporary issues related to diverse family structures, cultural and
socioeconomic influences on access to and delivery of health care, and
provision of culturally-competent family nursing care are emphasized.
Knowledge and skill development in providing evidence-based nursing
care and coordinating health care for families experiencing acute and
chronic illnesses, including transitions in level of care and care settings,
are reinforced. Community-based nursing assessment and interventions
with physically-, psychologically-, and socially-vulnerable client
populations within a family health context are explored. Prerequisites:
NUR 304, NUR 306 and GRO 325.
NUR 402 Community Health Nursing 3 Credits
This course focuses on culturally diverse populations and aggregates in
communities to achieve an optimum level of wellness. Special emphasis
is placed on advanced theoretical concepts related to health promotion,
risk reduction, disease prevention, and development processes. Students
gain skills needed to influence policy and to support the changes in a
community context. They examine health care reform and its impact on
communities, evaluate policies that influence the structure, financing,
and quality in health care, and examine health care delivery from a
global perspective. Through discussions and other activities, students
examine the effect of legal and regulatory processes on nursing practice,
health care delivery, and population health outcomes as well as ways to
advocate for promotion and preservation of population health. This
course includes 20 hours of practice experience activities. Prerequisites:
NUR 304 and NUR 306.
NUR 404 Nursing Care and Management of
Chronic Illness and Disability 3 Credits
This course focuses on the interrelationship among functioning, health,
and disability, which is analyzed within a biopsychosocial context.
Pathophysiological, psychosocial, and functional aspects of chronic
health conditions, across the lifespan and linked to the following
physiological systems, are presented: respiratory, cardiovascular,
neurological, gastrointestinal, renal, endocrine, immune/ inflammatory,
hematological, and skeletal/integumentary. The Chronic Care Model
(CCM), multidisciplinary care, and current therapeutic modalities and
disease management for these conditions are explored. Development of
evidence-based, community-focused chronic illness nursing assessment,
care plans, and interventions, including care coordination strategies, is
emphasized. Prerequisites: NUR 400 and NUR 402
NUR 406 Leading and Managing in Nursing 3 Credits
To effectively transition from a clinical nursing role to leadership,
nursing professionals must possess business savvy and specialty skills
that allow them to meet the demands an evolving and changing industry
while maintaining the caring competencies of the nursing profession.
This course introduces and reinforces group-promoting teamwork,
leadership, delegation, supervision, health care ethical decision-making
processes, strategic planning, and business negotiation. . This course
includes 20 hours of practice experience activities. Prerequisites: NUR
304 and NUR 306.
NUR 492 Capstone I: Nursing Practice
Improvement Inquiry 3 Credits
This course, and its companion, NUR 494, represent the culmination of
learning in the nursing program, and provide students an opportunity to
synthesize and demonstrate knowledge of biopsychosocial health
alterations and health promotion with clients across multiple practice
settings, with an emphasis on patient population/community practice,
the importance of culture and diversity in nursing practice, health
policy, knowledge of nursing leadership, intra- and interprofessional
collaboration, ethics, and research. Integrated knowledge and skills will
be demonstrated through the development of a capstone project
proposal related to the identification and critical, evidence-based,
research exploration of a nursing practice problem, and strategies for
quality improvement in the areas of health informatics, leadership and
management, or population/ community health. NUR 492 and NUR 494
includes 30 hours of practice experience activities. Prerequisites: NUR
404, NUR 406 and permission of the program chair.
NUR 494 Capstone II: Nursing Practice
Improvement and Evaluation 3 Credits
Demonstration of integrated theoretical, research, and evidence-based
practice knowledge and skills is foundational to the role of the
professional, bachelor’s-prepared nurse. The student will utilize the
capstone project proposal developed in NUR 492 to develop a
comprehensive improvement plan for the identified nursing practice
problem, which encompasses best practices utilizing: quality and safety
in patient care, nursing informatics, health policy, community/
population health, nursing leadership, ethical and professional