NURSING PROGRAM (Associate in Science Degree) Connecticut Community Colleges Nursing Program

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The Connecticut Community Colleges Nursing Program is launching a new nursing program offered at five sites starting in the Fall 2008. The CT-CCNP is committed to the educational preparation of safe, competent, associate degree entry level practitioners of nursing. This is accomplished through a dynamic educational experience which involves active and diverse learning processes. Program graduates are prepared to assume the multi-faceted role of the professional nurse which includes planning and provision of care, client advocacy, communication, teaching, and managing human, physical, financial and technological resources. Graduates must possess the ability to recognize and respond to current trends and issues while upholding standards of care through life-long learning.

Nursing is a dynamic profession that incorporates evidenced-based theory and skills required for safe practice. Nursing practice integrates the art and science of nursing with theoretical principles from the natural, social, behavioral, biological and physical sciences.

Six core values provide the framework for organizing the curriculum. The core values are:

Critical Thinking – Critical thinking skills are essential in today’s rapidly changing health care environment. Critical thinking is a complex process that is purposeful, goal-directed and based on factual evidence. Critical thinking requires the skills of collecting, identifying, examining, interpreting and evaluating data. Critical thinking in nursing utilizes the nursing process to identify problems, determine goals and interventions and evaluate outcomes in client care situations. Critical thinking skills encourages nursing students to think for themselves and initiate appropriate interventions after defining the health care needs.
Safe and Competent Practice – Safe and competent practice embraces standards of professional nursing. These standards are implemented through clinical, cultural, and technological proficiency in a variety of health care settings. Nurses continuously strive to provide high level nursing care and to improve client outcomes based upon scientifically supported evidence.
Caring – Caring is fundamental to nursing practice. Caring encompasses comfort, empathy, compassion, concern and advocacy within a culturally diverse client population. Caring nurses enhance the dignity and integrity of individuals, families and groups within the health care delivery system.
Professionalism – Professionalism is acquired through a complex process by which the nursing student internalizes values inherent to the practice of nursing. These values include integrity, legal-ethical standards, confidentiality, political awareness, and collegiality. Professional role development includes the acquisition of knowledge and skills through life-long learning.
Communication – Communication is essential to the practice of professional nursing and includes both verbal and non-verbal skills, and information technologies to enhance client care. The nursing student develops skills in presentation, documentation, teaching, conflict resolution, assertiveness, negotiation, and therapeutic communications with individuals, families, groups, health care team, and community agencies.
Holistic Care – Nursing utilizes a multidisciplinary approach to managing care that recognizes the uniqueness of the individual. Holistic nursing has as its goal the enhancement of illness prevention, health promotion, wellness maintenance, and health restoration across the life span. Holistic care involves the identification of the bio-psycho-social and cultural dimensions of the client across the life span on the wellness-illness continuum. Clients, families, and groups are respected according to their physical, emotional, social, economic, cultural, and spiritual needs.

The Nursing Program is a two-year four semester program which, upon successful completion, awards an Associate in Science Degree. Sixty-eight credits are required for graduation. These include general education courses and nursing courses sequenced to build from fundamental skills to complex critical thinking skills. The program is challenging in nature, demanding mathematics, science, social science and English skills as building blocks to all that encompasses nursing practice.

The Role of the Associate Degree Graduate within the Scope of Nursing Practice

The Nursing program will provide the student with the knowledge and technical skills to practice in a safe, effective and competent manner within the legal and ethical framework for an entry-level Registered Nurse. The scope of practice for the Associate Degree graduate is to provide and manage care for a diverse group of individuals, families and communities in collaboration with members of the health care team consistent with the CT-CCNP core values.

The Associate Degree Nurse is responsible for his/her continued professional growth and development through continuing education programs and educational advancement to a higher degree level.

The course of study prepares graduates for employment in a variety of settings, extended-care facilities, acute-care hospitals, clinics, doctor’s offices, etc.

Clinical practice is offered in hospitals, extended care facilities, and community health centers during both day and evening hours. Weekend clinical practice may be required. Faculty cannot address requests for clinical placements. Students are responsible for their own transportation and must be prepared to travel to facilities a distance from their homes.

Flexibility is required to meet changing course needs.

An orientation session scheduled in late spring or early summer is mandatory for all admitted students.

Admitted students must submit the following required health information to the Laboratory Teacher, Department of Nursing, by June 15 of the admitting year or their place in the program will be relinquished:

1. Physical examination done within the last year
2. Documentation of required immunizations as described in the Nursing Admission Letter
3. Documentation of current certification in Professional level CPR certification must remain current throughout the program

RN Licensure: Legal Requirements

Eligibility for the National Council of State Boards of Examiners Registered Nurse Licensure Exam (NCLEX-RN) to become Registered Nurses in Connecticut is dependent on completion of an approved Registered Nurse program and graduate compliance with Chapter 368a Dept. of Public Health Sec. 19a-14.6 The Department of Public Health is authorized to perform the following functions:

• Determine the eligibility of any applicant for licensure, registration, certification or a permit; and
• Deny any applicant’s eligibility for a permit or licensure by examination, endorsement, reciprocity or for the restatement of a voided license if the Department determines that such applicant has committed or has been found guilty of committing acts which are contrary to public health and safety.

The Department of Public Health makes these decisions on a case by case basis.

Program Objectives/Learning Outcomes
The graduate will: Integrate the principles of the natural, physical, social, biological, and behavioral sciences and nursing theory to provide holistic care to individuals, families and groups across the wellness-illness continuum. Integrate nursing process and critical thinking skills for decision making in nursing practice. Provide safe and competent care to clients grounded in evidenced-based practice, quantitative competency and technological proficiency. Integrate effective communication skills through professional interactions with individuals, families, groups and the health care team. Create an environment where therapeutic interventions reflect a respect for human dignity. Collaborate as a member of a multidisciplinary health team. Integrate accountability and responsibility for practice within the legal and ethical standards of the nursing profession. Function in the professional role utilizing current standards of nursing practice.
Program of Study¹

Technical Standards

Students must be capable of performing the skills of a nursing student.

The standards reflect reasonable expectations of the RN student for the performance of common functions of the registered nurse. In adopting these standards the CT-CCNP is mindful of the patient's right to safe and quality health care provided both by our students and graduates. The RN student must be able to apply the knowledge and skills necessary to function in a broad variety of clinical situations.
Each student in the Associate in Science degree program must have the ability to learn and perform the following competencies and skills:

Motor: The student must possess sufficient motor capabilities to execute the movements and skills required to provide safe and effective nursing interventions. These include, but are not limited to:

1. Coordination, speed and agility to assist and safely guard (protect), with safe and proper body mechanics, patients who are ambulating, transferring, or performing other activities.
2. Ability to adjust and position equipment and patients, which involves bending or stooping freely to floor level and reaching above the head.
3. Ability to move or position patients and equipment, which involves lifting, carrying, pulling, up to and including 50 pounds.
4. Ability to guide, resist, and assist patients, or to provide emergency care, which involves the activities of standing, kneeling, sitting, or walking.
5. Ability and dexterity to manipulate the devices used in giving nursing care.
6. Ability to administer CPR without assistance.

Sensory: The student must possess the ability to obtain information in classroom, laboratory or clinical settings through observation, auscultation, palpation and other measures, including but not limited to:

1. Visual ability (corrected as necessary) to recognize and interpret facial expressions and body language, identify normal and abnormal patterns of movement, to read or set parameters on various equipment, to discriminate color changes, and to interpret and assess the environment.
2. Auditory ability (corrected as necessary) to recognize and respond to soft voices, auditory timers, equipment alarms, call bells, and to effectively use devices for measurement of blood pressure, breath sounds, etc.
3. Tactile ability to palpate a pulse and to detect changes or abnormalities of surface texture, skin temperature, body contour, muscle tone, and joint movement.
4. Sufficient position, movement and balance sensations to assist and safely guard (protect) patients who are ambulating, transferring or performing other activities.

Communication: The student must be able to utilize effective communication with peers, faculty, patients and their families, and other health care providers. This includes, but is not limited to:

1. Ability to read at a competency level that allows one to safely carry out the essential functions of an assignment (examples: handwritten chart data, printed policy and procedure manuals).
2. Ability to effectively interpret and process information.
3. Ability to effectively communicate (verbally and in writing) with patients/families, health care professionals, and others within the community.
4. Ability to access information and to communicate and document effectively via computer.
5. Ability to recognize, interpret, and respond to nonverbal behavior of self and others.

Behavior: The student must be capable of exercising good judgment, developing empathic and therapeutic relationships with patients and others, and tolerating close and direct physical contact with a diverse population. This will include people of all ages, races, socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, as well as individuals with weight disorders, physical disfigurement and medical or mental health problems. This also includes, but is not limited to:

1. Ability to work with multiple patients/families and colleagues at the same time.
2. Ability to work with classmates, instructors, health care providers, patients, families and others under stressful conditions, including but not limited to providing care to medically or emotionally unstable individuals, situations requiring rapid adaptations, the provision of CPR, or other emergency interventions.
3. Ability to foster and maintain cooperative and collegial relationships with classmates, instructors, other health care providers, patients and their families.

Critical Thinking: The student must possess sufficient abilities in the areas of calculation, critical problem solving, reasoning, and judgment to be able to comprehend and process information within a reasonable time frame as determined by the faculty and the profession. The student must be able to prioritize, organize and attend to tasks and responsibilities efficiently. This includes, but is not limited to:

1. Ability to collect, interpret and analyze written, verbal and observed data about patients.
2. Ability to prioritize multiple tasks, integrate information and make decisions.
3. Ability to apply knowledge of the principles, indications, and contraindications for nursing interventions.
4. Ability to act safely and ethically in the college clinical lab and in clinical placements within the community.

Students who wish to earn a baccalaureate degree in Nursing may take advantage of the dual enrollment agreement with Central Connecticut State University, Saint Joseph's College or with the University of Hartford. In addition, the Nursing Program presently has articulation agreements with all Connecticut BSN programs. Call the Department of Nursing and Health Careers at (860) 906-5150, for further information.

Students admitted to the Nursing Program may be asked to undergo Background Checks. Legal clearance is required to practice at certain clinical sites. Nursing students must be prepared to pursue this cost (approximately $30.00) in order to effectively meet hospital mandates for student clinical practice.

A minimum grade of C is required to progress from semester to semester and complete the nursing program.

LICENSED PRACTICAL NURSE OPTIONS

Licensed Practical Nurses who hold a current license in the State of Connecticut and meet the CT-CCNP admission requirements may be eligible to participate in the Connecticut Articulation Model for Nurse Education Mobility once they have been admitted to the Nursing Program. LPNs may complete any one of the following three options:

1. Bridge Option
   
   • All first year general education requirements
   • 3-credit transition course – web-based – administered through Charter Oak College
   • 1-credit curriculum specific course at Capital Community College (Independent Study with clinical component; Medication Calculation Exam and skills testing requirement).
     These students will receive 16 advanced placement credits and will enter the program in NSG* 201.
2. NSG* 102 Option
   
   • All first year general education requirements
   • Medication Calculation Exam and skills testing requirement
     These students will receive 8 advanced placement credits and will enter the program in NSG* 102.
3. NSG* 101 Option
   
   • Enter as a generic NSG* 101 student

LPNs are encouraged to meet with the Nursing Counselor to discuss these options. Nursing course leader must be notified via email by May 1, which option the LPN chooses to enter under.

Selective Admissions Criteria

Students seeking admission to the Nursing, Associate in Science Degree Program must fulfill selective nursing admission criteria to qualify for this program. These criteria are in addition to the general admission policies of the College.

This Connecticut Community Colleges Nursing Program will be launched at Capital Community College in the Fall 2008 pending approval from The Connecticut Department of Higher Education and the Connecticut State Board of Nursing.