san antonio college
One of the Alamo Community Colleges
Nursing Education Department
Curriculum Concepts & Definitions
| Adaption: | A dynamic process where the individual acts on and changes the internal and/ or external environment to foster optimal expressions of health throughout the lifespan. |
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| Caring: | Professional nursing behaviors that reflect attributes of compassion, competence, confidence, conscience, commitment, and comportment (Roach, 2002).
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| Client: | A person who receives the services of a registered nurse who is qualified to provide professional nursing. According to the Texas Board of Nursing, “professional nursing means the performance of an act that requires substantial specialized judgment and skill, the proper performance of which is based on knowledge and application of the principles of biological, physical, and social science as acquired by a completed course in an approved school of professional nursing.” (Retrieved January 9, 2007 at http://www.bon.state.tx.us/nursinglaw/npa1.html#353-hb ). |
| Communication: | The process by which the nurse receives, interprets, and conveys information to clients and families or collaborates with members of the interdisciplinary health care team (IHCT). The term therapeutic communication is used for the interactive process between nurse and client or family. |
| Critical Thinking: | Critical thinking is a purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which uses interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, and explanation in the cognitive and affective domains to facilitate the process of knowledge development and clinical decision making (Facione, 1990). The nurse uses critical thinking skills to facilitate clinical decision making and practice that is evidence based. Evidence-based practice is the implementation of therapeutic nursing interventions based on empirical evidence from nursing, biologic, and psychosocial sciences. |
| Health: | A dynamic life experience that is expressed in terms of wellness or illness. |
| Health Promotion: | The implementation of an evidence-based strategy for advancing wellness or for preventing illness, disability, or premature death. |
| Interdisciplinary Health Care Team: | All professionals who provide service or care to a client and family for the purpose of health promotion, health maintenance, rehabilitation, or restoration to health. |
| Internal/ external Environment: | All internal (biological, intellectual, spiritual, and psychological) and external (sociocultural) conditions that continually influence the lifespan and adaptation of an individual. |
| Lifespan: | The length of time between the birth and death of an individual. Throughout the lifespan, an individual experiences patterned and orderly changes in physical growth and functional development. |
| Members of families and communities: | A community includes those individuals who share belief systems, provide mutually reinforcing support networks, and define expectations for health and illness behaviors. The family is “the basic unit of society that consists of those individuals, male or female, youth or adult, legally or not legally related, genetically or not genetically related, who are considered by others to represent their significant persons.” (From Kozier and Erb’s Fundamentals of nursing: Concepts, process, and practice, 8 th edition, 2008, p. 429). |
| Multicultural groups: | Collections of individuals within communities who come from various racial, ethnic, religious, or social backgrounds. Each cultural group shares similar behaviors and characteristics that are passed on from one generation to the next through interaction with group members. |
| Nursing Process: | Nursing process is a systematic method to provide nursing care which utilizes assessment, analysis, planning, implementation, and evaluation for clinical decision making. |
| Teaching/learning process: | A dynamic interactive process that results in a change in behavior in the learner through assimilation of knowledge and development of values, skills, and competencies. |
| Therapeutic Modalities: | Interdependent interventions shared by the nurse and the interdisciplinary health care team. These include interventions for: |
| Diagnostic tests: The nurse must understand the purpose, procedure, results and nursing implications of selected diagnostic tests. | |
| Medical Diagnosis and Treatments: The nurse must understand that the physician is responsible for the medical diagnosis and determines therapeutic regimen required for the client. | |
| Nutrition: The nurse must know normal nutrition to determine client needs based on physical, psychosocial and cultural factors. | |
| Pharmacological Agents: The nurse must know classification, action, rationale, dosage range, side effects of pharmacological agents to assess client response and determine nursing implications. | |
| Respiratory Therapy: The nurse must know the purpose, procedures, results and implications of respiratory therapy to promote optimal respiratory function. | |
| Rehabilitation: The nurse collaborates with occupational, recreational, speech and physical therapists to promote adaptation and restore the client’s optimum function. | |
| Support Network: The nurse refers and collaborates with select services, community agencies and individuals such as social services, pastoral care and volunteer services to support clients, families and significant others as they adapt to alterations in health or death with dignity. | |
| Therapeutic Nursing Interventions (TNI): | Cognitive and psychomotor skills needed to perform independent, interdependent, and dependent nursing actions for clients across the lifespan for health promotion, health maintenance, rehabilitation, restoration to health, or palliative and end-of-life care. |
| References: | Berman, A., Snyder, S. J., Kozier, B., & Erb, G. (2008). Kozier & Erb’s fundamentals of nursing: Concepts, process, and practice (8 th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. |
| Facione P (project coordinator). (1990). Critical thinking: A statementof expert consensus for purposes of educational assessment and instruction. The Delphi Report: research findings and recommendations prepared for the American Philosophical Association. ERIC Doc No. Ed315-423. Washington: ERIC. | |
Roach, M.S. (2002). Caring, the human mode of being: A blueprint for health professionals (2 nd ed.). Ottawa: CHA Press = Press de l’ACS. |
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Texas Board of Nursing. Nursing Practice Act. http://www.bon.state.tx.us/nursinglaw/npa1.html#353-hb |
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Approved 5/09 |
Copyright 2007 San Antonio College - Updated on: July 23, 2009