RNRS 190: Foundations of Nursing

Citrus College Course Outline of Record

Citrus College Course Outline of Record
Heading Value
Effective Term: Fall 2021
Credits: 4
Total Contact Hours: 144
Lecture Hours : 36
Lab Hours: 108
Hours Arranged: 0
Outside of Class Hours: 72
Prerequisite: Admission to the ADN program.
Transferable to CSU: No
Transferable to UC: No
Grading Method: Standard Letter

Catalog Course Description

The first course in the nursing sequence, students are introduced to the applications of the nursing process and critical thinking needed to provide basic care to clients in a variety of community, long term and acute care settings. Emphasis is on promoting optimum health across the health-illness continuum. Clinical experiences provide the opportunity to practice basic skills in the skills lab and the clinical setting. 36 lecture hours, 108 lab hours.

Course Objectives

  • Discuss the philosophy of the ADN program at Citrus College and the Conceptual Framework that will guide nursing practice through the program.
  • Utilize the nursing process as a critical thinking tool and develop basic nursing care plans and concept maps in the classroom/clinical settings.
  • Demostrate basic principles of documentation including legal issues, correct use of appropriate spelling, medical terminology and abbreviations in the classroom/clinical settings.
  • Apply fundamental concepts in nursing to maintain or restore wellness across the lifespan including physical assessment, patient safety, infection control, hygiene, mobility, rest and sleep, elimination and nutrition.
  • Identify opportunities for patient education and apply principles of teaching and learning.

Major Course Content

  1. Unit One: Introduction to the ADN Philosophy and Conceptual Framework
    1. The client/patient
    2. The nurse
    3. Optimum wellness
    4. The environment
    5. Nursing
  2. Unit Two: The Nursing Process
    1. Assessment
    2. Nursing diagnosis
    3. Outcomes and planning
    4. Implementation
    5. Evaluation
  3. Unit Three: Critical thinking and the nursing process
    1. The process
    2. Domains of reasoning
    3. Standards for critical thinking
    4. Critical thinking applied to the nursing process
  4. Unit Four: Concepts important to nursing
    1. Evidence-based nursing practice
      1. Steps of evidence-based practice
      2. Research and evidence-based practice
      3. Ways to apply evidence-based practice to nursing
    2. Culture and ethnicity
      1. Cultural context of health and caring
      2. Culturally congruent care
      3. Cultural competence
    3. Legal and ethical issues
      1. Basic terms in health ethics
      2. Ethics and values in professional nursing
      3. Professional Nursing Code of Ethics
  5. Unit Five:The nurse as communicator and educator
    1. Communication/therapeutic communication
      1. The communication process
      2. Therapeutic communication
      3. Nursing interventions for communicating with patients with special communication needs
    2. Teaching learning
      1. Domains and principals of learning
      2. Purpose of patient education
      3. Integrating the nursing and teaching processes
  6. Unit Six: Maintaining optimum health
    1. Basic health assessment
    2. Oxygenation
    3. Pain
    4. Hygiene
    5. Fluids and electrolytes
    6. Mobility
    7. Nutrition
    8. Elimination
    9. Rest and Sleep
  7. Unit Seven: Promoting Safety
    1. Promoting client safety
    2. Skin integrity
    3. Sensory alterations
    4. Loss, death and grief

Lab Content

  1. Hand Washing
  2. Personal Protective Equipment
  3. Body Mechanics
  4. Positioning
  5. Ambulation/Transfers
  6. Range of Motion
  7. Assistive Devices
  8. Bed making
  9. Basic Hygiene: oral care, bed bath, backrub, hair care, shaving, pericare
  10. Pain Assessment
  11. Vital Signs
  12. Restraints
  13. Measuring intake and output
  14. Height and Weight
  15. Specimen collection
  16. Care of tubes/ostomies/catheter care, IV’s
  17. Sitz bath
  18. Oxygen administration
  19. Wound assessment and dressing change
  20. Hot and cold therapy
  21. History taking and physical assessment
  22. Documentation

Suggested Reading Other Than Required Textbook

1. Ackley, B.J. & Ludwig, G.B. & Makic, M.B.F. (2017). Nursing diagnosis handbook: An evidence guide to planning care. (11th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier
2. Jarvis, C. (2016). Physical examination and health assessment: Pocket companion (7th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Saunders
3. Vallerand, A.H., Sanoski, C.A., & Deglin, J.H. (2018). Davis’s drug guide for nurses (16th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis 4. Van Leeuwen, A.M. & Bladh, M. L. (2017). Davis’s Comprehensive handbook of laboratory and diagnostic tests and nursing implications. (7th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis
5. Taber’s, C.W. (2017). Taber’s cyclopedic medical dictionary (23rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA.: F.A. Davis

Examples of Required Writing Assignments

1. Graded care plan 2. Graded concept map 3. Patient assessment and other clinical documents as part of the weekly clinical assignments

Examples of Outside Assignments

1. Peer-reviewed journal articles related to the course content 2. Kaplan focused review and proctored tests 3. Formulate care plans/concept map as individual and group project 4. Medcom online stream videos 5. Mosby's nursing skills videos

Instruction Type(s)

Lecture, Lab, Online Education Lecture, Online Education Lab