Program Curriculum

Clinical Placement Eligibility Criteria

     Must Comply with:

• Active LIU Castlebranch account to upload required clinical documents for hospital/clinic
• Satisfactorily complete the required health forms – including annual physical exam, titers and vaccinations
• Pass a background check^*
• Pass a drug screen
• Fit Testing for N95 mask per OSHA guidelines
• Complete HIPAA and OSHA certification courses
• Complete an American Heart Association Basic Life Support (BLS) for Health Care Providers Course and provide a certification card.
• Comply with criminal background checks and drug screening as required for eligibility to access entrance into specific clinical agencies as related to clinical course objective.*

 *Pending review by the New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions, persons who have been convicted of a crime other than a minor traffic violation could be ineligible for Registered Nurse Licensure in the State of New York, even though they have successfully completed the program.

Progression Criteria

Generic BS Nursing Program / Accelerated BS Nursing Program

• Achieve a C or better in all nursing courses and maintain a minimum nursing and overall GPA of 2.75. 

Note: All science courses must have been completed within 5 years of acceptance to the program.

Program Outcomes

1. Integrate knowledge from the liberal arts and sciences when providing professional nursing care to diverse individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations throughout the life span and across the continuum of healthcare settings.
2. Identify principles of leadership and management for quality improvement and patient safety to the delivery of high-quality professional nursing care within current cultural, economic, organizational, and political perspectives.
3. Integrate evidence-based best practices into professional nursing practice to improve patient outcomes.
4. Use information technology ethically to support evidence-based practice, decision-making, and demonstrate competence using patient care technology in the delivery of quality patient care across the continuum of care.
5. Examine healthcare, financial, and regulatory policies that influence the practice of professional nursing and access to care and promote advocacy for consumers and the profession.
6. Collaborate with members of the interprofessional team to improve communication to provide patient centered care.
7. Provide population-based professional nursing care that integrates concepts of demographics, social determinants of health, health promotion, disease and injury prevention, risk assessment, genetics/genomics, equity, and resource utilization in the delivery of quality and safe care.
8. Demonstrate professionalism and accountability in nursing practice applying professional values of altruism, autonomy, human dignity, integrity, and social justice.
9. Apply knowledge, skills, and attitudes using clinical reasoning to develop nursing interventions that recognize culture, spirituality, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, and sexual orientation in the delivery of professional nursing care to all consumers across the lifespan.

Course Descriptions

NUR 210 Contemporary Topics in Nursing

The focus of this course is to introduce students to concepts and topics that are important to contemporary nursing practice and professional development of the nurse. Selected concepts are explored and include professionalism, clinical judgment, communication and collaboration, informatics, the interprofessional health care team, licensure, health care law and ethics, evidence-based practice, safety, health care economics, quality and health promotion.

Credits: 2

NUR 211 Informatics for Nurses

This course examines information management and technological advances for practice of professional nursing care, using the concepts of technology and information, professionalism, communication, health care law/policy, health care ethics, and patient education. Background information, informatics applications, health care information systems, patient privacy considerations, costs and consequences are reviewed. This course explores future directions in computerized integrated health care delivery.

Credits: 2.5

NUR 220 Health Assessment and Health Promotion

This course provides pre-licensure nursing students with beginning skill development to perform a comprehensive health and physical assessment of adults and older adults. Students will acquire the requisite knowledge and cognitive, psychomotor, and affective skills related to interviewing techniques, history taking, general survey, physical assessment, cultural assessment, health promotion, risk assessment, documentation, and communication of findings required for beginning nursing practice. The importance of culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate care and evidence-based practice are integrated into all aspects of patient assessment. Emphasis is placed on the acquisition, processing, analysis, and interpretation of subjective and objective data, physical examination, documentation, and communication of assessment findings that provide accurate information from which to form valid nursing diagnoses and integrated plans of care. This course is taken concurrently with NUR 220 lab.

Credits: 3.5

NUR 231 Principles of Nursing Practice

This course focuses on concepts and exemplars essential to safe, quality nursing care of patients with basic health care needs, particularly the older adult.  Classroom discussions and activities will focus on knowledge essential to developing competencies and the core values associated with professional nursing practice and focuses on the Quality and Safety Education in Nursing (QSEN) competencies. Core principles include safety and infection control, health and wellness, comfort and care, the nursing process, principles of medication administration, therapeutic communication, teaching and learning, and cultural and spiritual care of the patient. This will provide the theoretical basis for nursing skills taught in the laboratory and simulation settings. Skills related to the physiologic health process such as mobility, hygiene and comfort, infection control, vital sign monitoring, oxygenation, skin and wound care, nutrition and elimination will be taught and practiced in a laboratory/simulation setting. This course is taken concurrently with NUR 321L and NUR 321C.

Credits: 6

NUR 235 Pathophysiology for Nursing Practice

This course introduces students to basic principles and processes of the concepts of pathophysiology and altered health states in relation to normal body functioning aspects of physical and physiologic changes occurring in disease processes. These include descriptions of cellular biology; genes and genetic diseases; forms of cell injuries; fluids and electrolytes and acids and bases; immunity; and tumor biology.  Knowledge of these processes is applied to the pathophysiology of common diseases based upon selected concepts. The presentation of each disease/disorder entity includes relevant risk factors, pathophysiology, clinical manifestations and a brief review of treatment.  Clinical reasoning will be augmented by applying models for nursing clinical judgment to clinical case studies. The course provides a foundation for future study in examining responses to illness in subsequent courses.

Credits: 3

NUR 240 Pharmacology for Nursing Practice

The purpose of this course is to explore core concepts and scientific basis of pharmacotherapeutic agents used in the treatment of illness and the promotion, maintenance and restoration of wellness in diverse individuals across the lifespan. Emphasis is on the principles of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and pharmacogenetics in the treatment of selected illnesses including therapeutic and toxic effects, dosage calculations, and challenges related to drug therapy.  The focus is safe administration and monitoring the effects of pharmacotherapeutic agents through the application of selected concepts important in nursing practice. Prototypes of the major drug groups are emphasized including evidence for best practice and critical thinking. Legal and ethical principles and regulatory guidelines and standards of practice will be discussed as they affect the role of the nurse generalist in delivering varied drug therapies. This course is taken concurrently with NUR 340L Pharmacology for Nursing Practice lab.

Credits: 4

NUR 262 Introduction to Health Systems and Policy

This course provides an overview of the health care system and the policy, political, economic and social factors that shape it. The course includes particular emphasis on how these factors affect the nursing profession and nursing practice. It also examines the roles that nurses, other health professionals, and consumers play in shaping health policy. This is a writing-intensive course that fulfills LIU Brooklyn’s writing-intensive requirement. For graduation, all students are required to take nine credits of writing-intensive courses. These courses include English 16 and a writing-intensive course in the major.

Credits: 3

NUR 263 Research/Evidence for Nursing

This course introduces nursing students to the processes and methods of research and evidence based practice. Focus is placed on identifying clinical questions, searching and appraising the evidence for potential solutions/innovations, and identifying additional gaps in nursing knowledge. Students explore the research process and critique research studies for quality and application to professional nursing practice. Ethical and legal implications in research are explored.

Credits: 3

NUR 270A Maternity/OB Nursing

This seven week course focuses on the nursing care of the childbearing woman and newborn within the context of family-centered care. The course provides a global perspective and will explore social, economic, and political factors that impact the health of the maternal newborn population and the role of the registered nurse in caring for the childbearing and neonatal population. This course explores health promotion and maintenance behaviors across the lifespan in relation to maternal and newborn health. Clinical, lab, and simulation experiences provide opportunities for students to use clinical reasoning and the nursing process to provide quality nursing care to mothers, newborns, and families.

Credits: 3

NUR 270B Pediatric Nursing

This seven week course focuses on the knowledge and skill acquisition needed to care children and adolescence across the continuum of care. Emphasis is placed on family-centered care through transitions in the illness and recovery phases. The course accentuates family centered strategies for optimizing health and maintaining individuality; promoting optimal developmental, physiological, and psychological functioning; and enhancing strengths within the context of family. Preventing disease through healthy environments: an assessment of the burden of disease from environmental risks social, economic, and political contexts affecting children bears examination. Clinical, lab, and simulation experiences provide opportunities for students to use clinical reasoning and the nursing process to provide quality nursing care to infants, children, adolescents, parents, and families.

Credits: 3

NUR 275 Behavioral and Mental Health Nursing

This clinical course focuses on promotion, maintenance, and restoration of behavioral health across the lifespan. Emphasis is placed on therapeutic communication, critical thinking, and nursing interventions with clients in acute care and outpatient settings.  Behavioral Health Nursing includes the School of Nursing (SON) core concepts, scope and standards of practice, basic mental health concepts, including developmental theories, issues related to client advocacy, therapeutic relationships, psychopharmacology, milieu management, models and theories related to individual, group, and family therapy, and clinical disorders from a nursing perspective. Cultural influences are discussed as they relate to communication and behavior. Students are introduced to principles of evidence-based practice as they relate to health promotion, prevention and treatment of mental illness across the lifespan. This course is taken concurrently with NUR 420C.

Credits: 4

NUR 280 Nursing Leadership and Management

This course examines leadership concepts, including communication, evidence, ethics, law/policy, quality, and professionalism in the health care delivery system.  Theories regarding leadership, management, power, chaos, change, influence, delegation, communication and empowerment are analyzed.  Strategies for effective multidisciplinary collaboration are explored.  Through a mentorship with a nursing leader, students apply leadership and management theory, plus participate as members of the healthcare team with a commitment to health equity in partnership with communities and other health professionals. This course is taken concurrently with NUR 430C.

Credits: 3.5

NUR 285 Medical Surgical Nursing I

This is the first of two courses, which focus on the health care needs for adults across their life span using selected concepts as a framework for study.  Building on the foundations of previous nursing courses and the nursing process, students will examine the impact of altered health states including social determinants that integrate physiologic, sociocultural and behavioral alterations throughout.  Emphasis is on prevention of complications, caring, empowerment, and critical thinking to promote optimal well-being in the patient and family. The clinical experience provides students with opportunities to apply the nursing process in acute care settings. This course is taken concurrently with NUR 440L and NUR 440C.

Credits: 6

NUR 290 Medical Surgical Nursing II

This is the second of two courses, which focuses on evidence-based nursing care of adult and geriatric clients using selected concepts as a framework for study. Building on the foundations of previous nursing courses and the nursing process, students will examine the impacts of altered health states, including social determinants and plan nursing care for patients experiencing specific basic and complicated health alterations. Emphasis is on nursing care designed to prevent complications and to promote optimal well-being in the patient and family.  This course is taken concurrently with NUR 450L and NUR 450C.

Credits: 7

NUR 295 Community/Population Health Nursing

This course will explore the role of the nurse caring for individuals, families, and populations with a focus on health promotion and prevention of population-based health problems and disease. Healthy People 2020 provides the basis for the identification of social determinants of health, at-risk assessment and reduction among diverse populations across the lifespan. Concepts derived from nursing theory, clinical practice, epidemiology, ecology, and social sciences are integrated throughout this course. Students learn to provide culturally competent care that demonstrates an understanding of community models for health/illness and the sociopolitical and economic forces governing health care regulation, choices, and services. Emphasis is placed on a real-world community-centered project that addresses the health and educational needs of a specific population. This course is taken concurrently with NUR 460C.

Credits: 5.5