Introduction to Acute Care Nursing Adult

In this course, students will be introduced to key concepts and practices foundational to adult acute care medical-surgical nursing. Course content explores and identifies priority nursing assessments and interventions associated with symptom management of common illness conditions relevant to adult clients in medical and surgical hospital settings. The lived experience of clients and families coping with acute illness, as well as cultural and ethical concerns and their implications for nursing practice will also be considered.

Throughout the course, students will apply and strengthen their critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, clinical reasoning, and clinical judgment skills using the nursing process and the National Council of State Boards of Nursing-Clinical Judgment Model (NCSBN-CJM). The CJM is integrated into classroom and clinical learning using unfolding clinical scenarios, case studies, assignments, in-person simulations, and virtual simulations.

During clinical placement, students will have the opportunity to further apply their learning while actively caring for adults and families in an acute medical or surgical setting under the supervision and support of their clinical instructor. Students are expected to integrate current course content knowledge and understanding with foundational nursing and therapeutic skills acquired in the fall term.