Additional Requirement (CA BRN)
The California Board of Registered Nursing requires that before nursing graduates are eligible to take the NCLEX, they must successfully complete courses (earn a “C” or better) in the basic sciences and communication as well as nursing.
At USF, aside from the Nursing requirements and required support courses, students must successfully complete a course in group, verbal, and written communication. These courses include RHET 103 - Public Speaking , RHET 120 - Written Communication II , and SOC 150 - Intro to Sociology . These courses are met by the core curriculum requirements of the university. Due to the uniqueness of the School of Nursing and Health Professions curriculum, clinical courses are not graded “A” through “F” as most courses are, but graded “S” (Satisfactory) or “U” (Unsatisfactory). Clinical courses in nursing will be counted toward a nursing student’s full-time status. Both undergraduate and graduate students are eligible to make the Dean’s Honor Roll.
The nursing faculty has adopted the Quality, Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) competencies as major pre-licensure threads in the BSN curriculum in order to promote improved quality and safety of the health care system. These competencies include: teamwork and collaboration, evidenced-based practice, quality improvement, informatics, safety, patient-centered care. In addition, the nine essentials outlined in the AACN Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice document provide a framework for baccalaureate nursing education. These include: liberal education, leadership and organization, evidence based practice, information management, health care policy and finance, inter-professional communication, prevention and population health, and general nursing practice.
The proposed BSN curriculum also adheres to the Standards of Competent Performance mandated by the CABRN Excerpt From California Code of Regulations Title 16 - Chapter 14. A registered nurse shall be considered to be competent when he/she consistently demonstrates the ability to transfer scientific knowledge from social, biological and physical sciences in applying the nursing process.
Roles of the Professional Nurse
- Professional nurses make informed and responsible choices that help shape the future of the nursing profession and the future of society (leader); they are the advocates for their clients and for their right to self-determination (advocate); at the baccalaureate level, they are first-level managers who supervise direct providers of patient care (manager).
- Research is the basis of and the process for validating and improving care; the professional nurse evaluates and uses research findings and the research process to plan and provide care (consumer of research).
- Professional nurses provide, coordinate, and/or direct the care of individuals, groups, families, and other aggregates of the community (case manager); they provide a unique service that takes the form of a helping relationship whereby the helper and the helped evolve through a facilitative process of self-exploration, better understanding, commitment to change, and appropriate action (communicator).
- Caring, compassion, responsiveness to human and system needs, and adherence to legal and ethical principles are essential elements of professional nursing practice (caregiver).
- Teaching is a major role of the professional nurse (teacher).
- The nurse engages in joint decision-making regarding actions towards the prevention and/or resolution of client health problems and promotion of optimum health. The collaboration always includes the client and significant others as well as all appropriate health care providers (collaborator).
- The nurse engages in actions toward limiting the incapacitation caused by health problems and toward the prevention of recurrences of health problems (rehabilitator).
