Salve Regina University
Office of Graduate and Professional Studies
Discover the difference Salve Regina University can make in your personal and professional life
Discover the difference Salve Regina University can make in your personal and professional life
This course builds on the registered nurse’s desire for a baccalaureate in nursing by explaining the mission and philosophy of Salve Regina University and the Department of Nursing, the development of the discipline of nursing, and the expectations of the nurse of the future. Topics include nursing history, nursing theories, and nursing models of practice, the various settings of practice and the roles of the professional nurse, the social policy statement of the profession, the determinants of the scope and standards of nursing practice, and the responsibility of the nurse to communicate appropriately and effectively while advocating for both the patients and the profession.
This course establishes the foundational knowledge for understanding and practicing nursing informatics in healthcare settings. It will explore the impact on patient care within the contemporary health care environment and examine a variety of interactive strategies and technologies used to enhance health care delivery to consumers. Core and supporting models and theories for nursing informatics and the sciences that support nursing informatics are studied. Consideration is given to the use of information technology to support decisions that promote safety and quality in patient -centered care, and concerns about protecting information and system integrity are addressed.
This course focuses on knowledge, procedures, and skills required to perform and then document a holistic health assessment and diagnosis of patients throughout the lifespan and in various settings. Techniques for assessment of the physical, spiritual, psychological, and socio-cultural aspects of a patient are presented with special considerations of unique populations and age groups. Assessment skills will be performed in Shadow Health. The use of the nursing process to determine nursing diagnoses, document findings, and develop interventions for health and wellness promotion, illness prevention, and risk anticipation, as well as the utilization of referral to colleagues, will be included.
This course focuses on the role of the professional nurse as an informed consumer of research and other evidence to facilitate the care of individuals, families, groups, and communities. The focus is the introduction to the values and characteristics of quantitative and qualitative research. The student examines the research process and develops the skills of analysis and critique of nursing research. Emphasis is placed on the development of clinical reasoning by analyzing published studies related to the delivery of nursing care. The professional responsibility to apply findings to direct patient care and develop best practices in nursing care is presented.
This course presents the knowledge and skills necessary to provide holistic nursing care of families challenged by the loss of abilities of family members due to aging and the need for end-of-life care, with special attention to issues of quality of life of the patient and family members. Emphasis will be placed on assessment of function, physical, cognitive, psychological, and social changes that can be considered common in old age, and the complex symptomatology, pain management, and risk factors associated with decline in health status due to a chronic debilitating illness. Attitudes, cultures and values that affect care to the aged and the dying process will be explored. Content related to end of life issues for the elderly, including communication, evidence-based practice, cultural expectations, spiritual and religious values and planning advanced directives will be explored.
This course presents students with the opportunity to provide appropriate, safe, holistic nursing care to families with aged members and patients who are approaching the end-of-life, while also minimizing the potential for the occurrence of additional health challenges for patients and their family. Collaboration with the patient will provide the basis for appropriate patient-centered, ethical, cost-effective nursing care to aged individuals, dying patients and their families in a variety of settings. Appropriate therapeutic responses will be based on the patient’s perception of health and understanding of risk factors, critical analysis of clinical findings, clinical research, evidence-based practice, clinical reasoning skills, methods of patient advocacy and teaching, issues of patient safety, processes for documentation and communication, and the nursing roles within a multi-professional team.
This course introduces the student to public health nursing. Epidemiological principles will be utilized in discussing global health issues, environmental health, infectious disease, and health disparities within populations. Concepts of vulnerability to natural and man-made disasters, and the challenges of prevention and health care advocacy for the preparedness of all will be explored within the context of social justice. Community disaster preparation and management will be explored. Local, regional and national preparedness will be evaluated with an emphasis on the effect on the local community.
This course provides a unique opportunity for students to become involved in an immersion experience with a vulnerable population within the community. Students with experience an intensive, short-term health education experience with a vulnerable population. In this course, students will be involved in processes of health promotion, illness prevention, risk reduction, and disaster management in a collaborative and tangible way within a community. Students connect what they have learned in the NUR444A Public Health and Disaster Preparedness course to real vulnerable populations in the community. This course emphasizes collaboration in the development of the goals and objectives of public health experiences, reciprocal learning between participants, and critical reflection.
This course presents the concepts of organizational and systems leadership, quality improvement, risk management, and patient safety that promote high quality patient care within institutional and community arenas. Principles of leadership and management are discussed with emphasis on the mission and vision of an organization, models of care delivery, and communication across the continuum of care, After analyzing trends and issues in the current healthcare system, students will determine ways they can provide the leadership required to affect a positive change within the evolving environment of health care.
This course provides the opportunity for the student to demonstrate the synthesis of the knowledge, attitudes, and skills of a developing professional nurse using the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) competencies. The student will discuss the organization, prioritization, and delegation of care of patients, as appropriate within a multi-professional system of patient care. Weekly discussions related to these concepts will be submitted, and a final evidenced-based research paper and PowerPoint presentation will be submitted. Weekly modules will explore the emerging challenges of professional practice via readings, discussions, and reflections .
As healthcare professionals, you may agree that the current medical care has become concerned more with longevity than with the quality of living. Should medical care help patients live longer or live according to their own goals and values?
Guiding patients through their illnesses so that they can make their own decisions seems to be a more humane and empathetic approach. But it requires an advanced level of communication among patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers.
This communication is the focus of Narrative Medicine (NM). NM applies the skills students of literature acquire (such as close reading, interpretation, and active reading/listening) to the medical context. It calls for factoring the patients’ stories into their healthcare plans. Throughout this course, you will explore Narrative Medicine’s premise that using narrative can enhance the quality of medical care.
This course will offer a panoramic of the American immigrant experience from the pilgrims in 1620 to the current debates over immigration.
An examination of what it is to say that human beings are persons. Human persons have different powers, such as freedom, knowing, understanding, willing, feeling, and loving; the course will explore the philosophical elucidations of these powers given throughout history down to our own time. The difference between and unity of the bodily and the spiritual dimensions in human beings, as well as the question of the immortality of the soul will be covered. Not only the nature of individual personal being, but also the question of intersubjectivity, or community, will be discussed. The dignity of the human person will be explored in relation to ethics. Finally, the question of God, Divine Persons, and human persons will be discussed, as well as the question of the afterlife. The features of human personhood also contribute in different ways to the worth or dignity of persons, and this will be a main theme of the course. Classic texts from the tradition of Western philosophy (Plato) as well as contributions from the contemporary period (Frankl, Crosby) will be read. The course will include the reading of two autobiographies (Pistorius, Frankl) which will introduce us vividly to the philosophical questions of human personal existence. Throughout the course we will relate the philosophical themes back to these autobiographies in order to ground our philosophical reflections in real life experience. Finally, in an attempt to relate the course to your role as professional nurses, we will explore the current “hot button” issue of euthanasia by looking at two philosophers who have written on the topic: one in favor and one opposed to euthanasia/physician assisted suicide/aid in dying. Your final paper will include a section in which you express your own view on the question of euthanasia utilizing all we have learned throughout the course.
This course engages the philosophical and ethical literature in examination of what makes a life good. We shall explore the roles of reason and faith in the hunt for the good life and examine subjects such as happiness, wisdom, justice, and other virtues through study of the great works of philosophers such as Aristotle, Boethius, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Lewis. In their company, we will have the opportunity to examine our lives and what makes for a life truly worth living.
Before the science of medicine and the professional practice of nursing, the art of healing was practiced with reference to religious concepts or by spiritual leaders who were thought to possess the powers to cure sickness. Ancient religions often turned to priests and priestesses to intercede for the relief from physical suffering. Other traditions valued the knowledge of the leaders who practiced rituals to better balance the powers of life, or who know how to tap the magic of plants that could cure diseases. Today, we turn to the knowledge and power of science and technology to address human illness and suffering through diagnosis, research and treatment. While today’s approach to caring for patients is rooted in the resources of twenty-first century medicine, there is increasing respect for the ways in which spirituality and religion can support programs of wellness and patient care. Therefore, in studying the religions of the world, we will also consider how these traditions provide some insights, questions, or concerns to the art of caring for patients-with all their cultural experience and needs.
Recent advances in medical and biotechnology have allowed humans in wealthy countries like the United States to address many problems that just a few decades ago would have been inconceivable to overcome. These advances enable us to improve the quality of our lives, overcome obstacles to procreation, replace organs, and extend our life on Earth. At the same time, they have raised many questions, particularly of an ethical nature: What is the nature of illness and health? What ethical values should be honored in the patient-physician relationship? What is necessary for a high-quality human life? Can lives be extended too long? Should life ever be terminated, and if so, under what conditions? What methods of human reproduction are legitimate? Do medical and biotechnologies threaten to reduce some humans to mere tools for other humans? Who receives the benefits of new medical and biotechnology, who is excluded, and on what basis? Does every individual have a right to health care?
These questions, in turn, sink their roots into even deeper questions. What is human nature and when do we violate it? How do moral and spiritual values relate to biological and physical values? How do religious worldviews, and in particular Christianity, understand illness and health, life and death? The goal of this course is to enable students to reflect on these and similar questions in an interdisciplinary manner.
Global Health: Society, Medicine, and the Body is designed to explore and analyze the social contexts of health, illness, and the body. In this course, we will investigate how anthropologists and sociologists approach health and disease from a bio-cultural understanding. For instance, how do socio-cultural systems shape perceptions of the body, disease patterns and notions of healing? How do healing systems vary across cultures? How are infectious diseases shaped by political and economic factors? Analysis of how Western medical sciences influence our understanding of the body will also be studied.
The field of statistics is the science of learning from data. Statisticians offer essential insight in determining which data and conclusions are trustworthy. When statistical principles are correctly applied, statistical analyses tend to produce accurate results. What’s more, the analyses even account for real-world uncertainty in order to calculate the probability of being incorrect.
If you want to use data to learn how the world works, you must have this statistical knowledge in order to trust your data and your results. There’s just no way around it. Understanding statistical principles can help you assess the quality and the validity of conclusions. Statistical knowledge can even help reduce your vulnerability to manipulative conclusions from projects that have an agenda.
This course will address a broad spectrum of fundamental statistics concepts. The topics include exploratory data analysis, basic probability distributions, sampling distributions, interval estimations, hypothesis testing, and significance testing (P-Values) with single, paired and two-sample problems.
Using the connection between writing and speaking, this course provides an introduction to informative and persuasive speech. Basic vocal training is covered. Students research, create and organize presentations using multi-media. This is a course for non-majors.Theme: Engaging Creative, Aesthetic and Spiritual Experience
Writing well is fundamental to your success at Salve Regina University. Even more important and long-lasting is the effect good writing skills can have on your professional advancement. This class, through an examination of issues that have fascinated humans since the beginning of civilization (What is a just society? How can individual freedom be balanced with the good of society as a whole? What is the role of sex, reproduction, genetics, and healthcare in the creation of just or unjust societies? What are the ethical and social implications of current advances in healthcare, especially those surrounding genetics, reproduction, and death?), will introduce and apply university-level writing skills that will be of use in your studies and your profession.
System-focused content addresses the normal physiologic and pathologic mechanisms of disease that serve as the foundation for advanced clinical assessment, decision-making, and management. Physiologic changes are compared and contrasted over the life span; and developmental physiology, normal etiology, pathogenesis, and clinical manifestations that are commonly found are addressed.
Seminar focusing on leadership concepts and professional values as they apply to the advanced practice nurse in a variety of settings at all levels of prevention. This course provides an integration of science-based theory and concepts with an emphasis on role transition and synthesis. Professional issues, collaboration, scope of practice, and advocacy are emphasized.
Global influences are changing advanced nursing health care practice. The course will explore health care policies, regulations, political and legal influences and ethical aspects to provide quality care. Genetics and genomics are expanding and influencing the management of care. Exploring the impact of these influences of care in relation to the role of the advanced practice nurse today and in the future.
Advanced health assessment and diagnostic reasoning focuses on assessment of health status of individuals and families throughout the lifespan addressing cultural and developmental variations. Diagnostic reasoning is emphasized as the decision making process which differentiates normal from abnormal health states. 120 clinical hours required.
This course focuses on application and innovation related to the collection, development, organization, analysis, and dissemination of information and technology in an interdisciplinary health care environment. Students are introduced to the role of the healthcare informaticist, healthcare information systems and the information system life cycle, the electronic health record (EHR), telemedicine, clinical decision-making tools, and other technology useful for enhancing healthcare delivery and patient safety.
The study of scientific research as it is applied to advanced practice nursing. Emphasis is placed on the role of the advanced practice nurse in research formulation and utilization.
Advanced Care within Maternal and Family Unit will delve into the complex assessment and management of the pregnant female, fetus and family unit. Family dynamics and theoretical assessments will be explored. The diverse care of the maternal-fetal unit will be examined to provide holistic management of care incorporating pharmacolical management of health care issues.
The study of pharmacologic principles and nursing prescriptive authority for the management of common and complex problems.
Advanced Care within Pediatrics delves into the complex development, stages and assessments in the management of the pediatric patient. Family dynamics and theoretical assessments will be explored focusing on the impact to the child. The stages of growth and development impacting advanced practice will be explored. Prescribing and dosing of pharmacological substances will be discussed to understand impact for the holistic management of care to the pediatric patient. Identifying advanced skills to assess, diagnose and manage pediatric health conditions, prevention of chronic diseases and provide health promotion for the pediatric patient and family unit.
This clinical course facilitates implementation of the role of the advanced practice nurse. In consultation with faculty, students select an area of clinical practice and implement advanced clinical decision making in the provision of evidence based nursing care with an emphasis on health and wellness. 130 clinical hours required.
This course concentrates on the role of the advanced practice nurse in the coordination and management of common health conditions for persons across the life span. Focus is on the assessment, diagnosis, clinical management, and education of persons within primary care settings.
This course focuses on the role of the advanced practice nurse in the coordination and management of complex health conditions and restoration of health for persons across the lifespan. Emphasis is on the assessment, diagnosis, management, and education of persons within primary care settings.
This clinical course facilitates implementation of the role of the advanced practice nurse. In consultation with faculty, students select an area of clinical practice and implement advanced clinical decision making in the provision of evidence based nursing care with an emphasis on common health conditions in primary care settings. 250 clinical hours required.
Continued focus on the clinical development of the advanced practice nurse. Emphasis is on the implementation of interdisciplinary care for complex health conditions in primary care settings. 250 Clinical hours required.
*For nurses who do not meet the required clinical hours, Salve Regina University offers up to 12 credit hours to meet the prerequisite. To learn more, speak with an enrollment advisor.
This course examines ethical issues in advanced practice nursing. Theoretical underpinnings of ethical decision making are discussed. The responsibilities of the advanced practice nurse as a patient advocate are analyzed.
Focus on the application of the principles of epidemiology to the planning, implementing, and evaluating of population based health care services. Emphasis is placed on the use of epidemiological and biostatistical methods of reasoning to draw inferences about strategies at all levels of prevention.
Focus on the application of the principles of epidemiology to the planning, implementing, and evaluating of population based health care services. Emphasis is placed on the use of epidemiological and biostatistical methods of reasoning to draw inferences about strategies at all levels of prevention.
Business and legal aspects relevant to establishing and maintaining an advanced nursing practice are critically analyzed. Aspects such as consulting, contracting, budgeting, profit analysis, billing, and reimbursement practices are discussed.
Students explore the various research techniques and methods to develop an advanced practice research project and apply the results to encourage knowledge through intensive analysis of existing research and current researched findings. The course includes preparation of appropriate research questions, literature review, qualitative and quantitative approaches to advance practice research, research designs, and threats to internal and external validity. Identifying a population to accurately sample, collect data and adhere to ethical considerations with the goal of enhancing outcomes and practice change.
This course is an introductory course to prepare, develop and disseminate academic writing. Academic writing is different from other forms of writing. Scholarly writing allows for the demonstration of scholarship in a specific domain like nursing. Writing and scholarship impacts advancements in teaching, research, and practice. The course will reinforce composition and writing skills for academic purposes. Students utilize citations and references to assert that work reflects a larger body of literature on the topic of interest. Supports written communication of ideas to inform and persuade a reader on the topic. The student will use the approved format to support the position and learn how to avoid plagiarism.
This course will examine the theoretical foundation and frameworks for examining health policy, health promotion, population heath, health equity and the implementation of community-based interventions. Utilization of current U.S. and global data will be examined to improve outcomes.
U.S. health policies and the role of APRNs in analyzing and creating health policy will be examined. Additionally, this course provides an evidence-based approached analysis of the healthcare policy making process, the effect of policy on healthcare and broader social policy, the influence of political and economic forces on healthcare policy and the necessity of health service organizations to engage in strategic governmental relations to empower community action.
This course analyzes how health care is organized, delivered and financed in the United States. This course provides a comprehensive systems thinking approach tracing the economic, cultural, and social contexts to deliver high-quality care. This course will examine the evidence-based practices of distribution and access to medical and other services, the roles of public and private insurance and healthcare benefits, licensure and accreditation, quality, and reimbursement.
Investigation on the role of the advanced nurse leader and their impact to improve outcomes within the areas of access to healthcare, federal healthcare and legislative programs and trends in healthcare delivery.
Biostatistics is a course to explore the rigorous transformation of knowledge gathering into measurable data to improve the healthcare outcomes. This course will build upon basic statistics and develop new knowledge to explain and decipher data within healthcare. The application and interpretation of statistical and epidemiological techniques appropriate to health research and science will be implemented. This course will prepare students to think quantitatively, assess data critically and interpret qualitative data. The student will examine principles of statistical inference and the application to the analysis and interpretation for answering practice questions.
This course explores the theoretical foundations and application of quality improvement methods, tools and strategies needed to increase organizational effectiveness. Measurement and accountability in health care delivery systems through the examination and analysis of data, structures, processes, and outcomes will be emphasized. Evidence-based science of quality improvement and interprofessional patient safety across various healthcare settings will be explored while focusing on contemporary issues in healthcare professions. This course will prepare students to lead and practice in organizations that advance high reliability principles, patient safety, inter-professional teamwork, and continuous learning to improve outcomes.
Pre-requisite(s): NUR-652 and NUR-665 are required. The Doctor of Nursing Practice Experiential Hour I course offers the PostMSN student requiring 250 experiential hours to work collaboratively with a leader in healthcare. The student will select an area of health care to work with an advanced practitioner to focus on organizational systems and leadership qualities. In consultation with faculty, the student will identify individualized learning outcomes to support the understanding of impacts on patient care outcomes.
Pre-requisite(s): NUR-652 and NUR-665 are required. The Doctor of Nursing Practice Experiential Hour II course offers the Post-MSN student requiring an additional 250 experiential hours, above the Doctor of Nursing Practice Experiential Hours I to work collaboratively with a leader in healthcare. The student will select an area of health care to work with an advanced practitioner to focus on organizational systems and leadership qualities. In consultation with faculty, the student will identify individualized learning outcomes to support the understanding of impacts on patient care outcomes.
System-focused content addresses the normal physiologic and pathologic mechanisms of disease that serve as the foundation for advanced clinical assessment, decision-making, and management. Physiologic changes are compared and contrasted over the life span; and developmental physiology, normal etiology, pathogenesis, and clinical manifestations that are commonly found are addressed.
Seminar focusing on leadership concepts and professional values as they apply to the advanced practice nurse in a variety of settings at all levels of prevention. This course provides an integration of science-based theory and concepts with an emphasis on role transition and synthesis. Professional issues, collaboration, scope of practice, and advocacy are emphasized.
Advanced health assessment and diagnostic reasoning focuses on assessment of health status of individuals and families throughout the lifespan addressing cultural and developmental variations. Diagnostic reasoning is emphasized as the decision making process which differentiates normal from abnormal health states. 120 clinical hours required.
Advanced Care within Maternal and Family Unit will delve into the complex assessment and management of the pregnant female, fetus and family unit. Family dynamics and theoretical assessments will be explored. The diverse care of the maternal-fetal unit will be examined to provide holistic management of care incorporating pharmacolical management of health care issues.
The study of pharmacologic principles and nursing prescriptive authority for the management of common and complex problems.
Advanced Care within Pediatrics delves into the complex development, stages and assessments in the management of the pediatric patient. Family dynamics and theoretical assessments will be explored focusing on the impact to the child. The stages of growth and development impacting advanced practice will be explored. Prescribing and dosing of pharmacological substances will be discussed to understand impact for the holistic management of care to the pediatric patient. Identifying advanced skills to assess, diagnose and manage pediatric health conditions, prevention of chronic diseases and provide health promotion for the pediatric patient and family unit.
This clinical course facilitates implementation of the role of the advanced practice nurse. In consultation with faculty, students select an area of clinical practice and implement advanced clinical decision making in the provision of evidence based nursing care with an emphasis on health and wellness. 130 clinical hours required.
This course concentrates on the role of the advanced practice nurse in the coordination and management of common health conditions for persons across the life span. Focus is on the assessment, diagnosis, clinical management, and education of persons within primary care settings.
This course focuses on the role of the advanced practice nurse in the coordination and management of complex health conditions and restoration of health for persons across the lifespan. Emphasis is on the assessment, diagnosis, management, and education of persons within primary care settings.
This clinical course facilitates implementation of the role of the advanced practice nurse. In consultation with faculty, students select an area of clinical practice and implement advanced clinical decision making in the provision of evidence based nursing care with an emphasis on common health conditions in primary care settings. 250 clinical hours required.
Continued focus on the clinical development of the advanced practice nurse. Emphasis is on the implementation of interdisciplinary care for complex health conditions in primary care settings. 250 Clinical hours required.