Nursing Curriculum Handbook

CNHS Nursing Faculty and Staff

Kimberly Christopher, PhD, RN
College of Nursing and Health Sciences Dean
Telephone: 508-999-8586
Office: DION 202

Nicole Gomez
Administrative Associate
Telephone: 508-999-8898
Office: Office: Dion 202C

Karen Barnett, DNP, RN
Assistant Dean, Undergraduate Nursing Studies
Telephone: 508-999-8948
Office: Dion 201

Alyssa Lynch
Administrative Assistant to the Assistant Dean
Telephone: 508-999-8586
Office: Dion 201

Uloma Onubogu, PhD, MSN, MS Ed., AGNP-BC, FNP-BC
Assistant Dean of Online Learning
Telephone: 508-999-8764
Office: Dion 201

Monika Schuler, PhD, FNP-BC, CNE, CARN
Chairperson, Community Nursing Department
Telephone: 508-999-8578
Office: Dion 201

Erin Gillett
Administrative Assistant, Community Nursing Department
Telephone: 508-999-8159
Office: Dion 201

Jennifer Viveiros, PhD, RN
Chairperson, Adult Health Nursing Department
Telephone: 508-910-6445
Office: Dion 308C

Justine Santos
Administrative Assistant, Adult Health Nursing Department
Telephone: 508-910-6138
Office: Dion 201

Jennifer Clark, MSN, RN, CHSOS
Nursing Education Laboratory Coordinator
Telephone: 508-999-8498
Office: Dion 201

Kim Reid, MPH, RN
Clinical Education Coordinator
Telephone: 508-999-8371
Office: Dion 201

Rekha Rosha, PhD
Program Manager, Student Academic Support & Success
Telephone: 508-999-8321
Office: Modular 3 – Rm 10

Michelle Bourgeois, MA. Ed.
Student Support Coordinator, ABSN & RN-BS students
Telephone: 508-910-6533
Office: Modular 3 – Rm 7

CNHS Vision

To shape the health environment through transformative nursing education, leadership, and scholarship.

CNHS Mission

To advance nursing knowledge and maximize the health of the Commonwealth and beyond through exemplary nursing education, scholarship, and community engagement.

CNHS core values

• Excellence in Teaching/Scholarship
• Integrity
• Professionalism
• Respect
• Innovation
• Collaboration
• Community
• Diversity
• Equity
• Inclusion
• Social Justice
• Ethics
• Advocacy

Philosophy

Nursing faculty positively affect the health of persons, families, and communities by educating nurses to provide quality nursing care to diverse populations across care settings. The College is committed to providing an environment of scholarship and caring wherein the education of nurses will flourish. Critical judgement, research skills and leadership skills are fostered throughout the programs of study. The graduates of this College demonstrate a commitment to humanism and promote the achievement of healthful living for all people.

The concept of person, health environment, and nursing are the guiding concepts for the discipline of nursing and the education of students. The following summaries articulate the faculty’s beliefs about these concepts.

Person

A person is a unique, holistic being who is constantly interacting with the environment. The person may adapt to or alter this environment in an effort to maximize health. The person exhibits both unique and predictable behaviors influenced by antecedent factors, developmental patterns, and the individual and situational context.

Nurses may engage with persons as individuals, families, communities, and populations, including the global community. Persons have the right to make decisions affecting their health. Nurses and persons collaborate to mobilize the strengths of persons to maximize health.

Environment

The environment consists of all forces, both internal and external, that reciprocally influence and interact with individuals, families, communities, and populations. These forces produce a change or response inn the person, which affect health status. Positive alterations in the environment, thinking abilities, repertoires of caring interventions, and understanding of self and persons from diverse cultural backgrounds will improve the person’s health status while negative alterations present risks to health status. Faculty promote professional role development by structuring caring environments conducive to learning and by providing support and direction while challenging students to reach their full potential.

Health

Health is a holistic, dynamic state. The person maximizes health by personal reflections and growth, and active interaction with the multidimensional environment. Inherent in the concept of health is an environmental connectedness. Health is the actualization of inherent and acquired potential, either as an individual, family, community, or population, including the global community.

Nursing

Nursing is a humanistic discipline that is both an art and a science. Professional nurses assist and collaborate with persons to maximize health. The focus of nursing enhances the strengths of a person by viewing the total person, family, community, or population with respect, mutuality, and collaboration. Professional nursing care occurs in any setting and at any point in the life continuum. Considerations of social, legal, spiritual, cultural, ethical, and economic issues are essential components in the planning and implementation of nursing care. Nursing assists persons to define health from their unique perspective. Changes in society have produced rapid changes in the health care delivery system. Nursing, as an integral part of the health care delivery system, shares the responsibility for effecting positive change within the healthcare system and global community.

Education

Faculty and students collaborate in the educational experiences so that students are prepared to provide nursing care safely and knowledgeably to individuals, families, communities, and populations in a variety of settings. The nursing major incorporates a liberal arts foundation, including humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Students engage in didactic and experiential learning activities. Experiential learning occurs both inn the laboratory and in regional health care settings. Through these learning activities students develop communication skills, critical thinking abilities, repertories of therapeutic interventions, and understanding of self and persons from diverse cultural backgrounds. Faculty promote professional role development by structuring environments conducive to learning and by providing support and direction while challenging the student to reach their full potential.

• Approved by Faculty Organization 2/15/95
• Revised by Faculty Organization 12/11/97
• Revised by Faculty Organization 10/20/04
• Reviewed by EPAC 5/19/2014
• Reviewed by EPAC 1/14/15
• Reviewed by Curriculum Committee 12/18/17
• Reviewed by Faculty Organization 5/8/2023
• Revised 9/17/25 by Faculty Organization

General Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities

Students are expected to adhere to the UMass Dartmouth and CON policies and procedures. It is the responsibility of each student to be aware of and to comply with these policies. Failure to stay informed is not acceptable reason for non-compliance. Of particular importance is that students must meet university immunization requirements to remain in good standing within the College of Nursing and Health Sciences. The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth policies are located in the UMass Dartmouth catalogues for undergraduate students. Also, please read the UMass Dartmouth Student Affairs Handbook related to policies and student conduct at and the university immunization requirements. Please pay particular attention to:

• Attendance Policies
• Withdrawal from Courses
• Student Complaints and Rights to Access Records
• Services for Learning and Students with Disabilities (Access and Success)
• Student Conduct
• University Immunization Requirements
• Graduation Policies (see also Graduation Requirements in CNHS Progression Handbook)

Baccalaureate Nursing Program Outcomes

1. Integrates current and evolving nursing knowledge with a foundation in liberal arts, natural, and social sciences to translate knowledge and apply clinical judgement and ways of knowing to provide innovative professional nursing care.
2. Implements person-centered care, defined as caring, holistic, just, respectful, compassionate, evidence-based, and developmentally appropriate care, to improve health outcomes in individuals, families, and populations.
3. Collaborates among traditional and non-traditional partnerships from affected communities, public health, industry, academia, healthcare, local government entities, and others that span the healthcare delivery continuum to initiate caring interventions and evaluate outcomes of public prevention of populations to improve disease management, equity, and population health outcomes.
4. Engages in the generation, synthesis, translation, application, and dissemination of nursing knowledge to improve health and transform healthcare.
5. Implements established and emerging principles of quality, safety, and improvement science in providing nursing care to minimize risk of harm to patients and providers through both system effectiveness and individual performance.
6. Engages in intentional interprofessional partnerships for collaboration with multidisciplinary team members, patients, families, communities, and other stakeholders to optimize care, enhance healthcare experiences, and strengthen outcomes.
7. Implements proactive and responsive actions as emerging leaders within complex systems of health care through the effective coordination of resources to provide safe, quality, and equitable care to diverse populations.
8. Utilizes communication data, information, knowledge, and wisdom in technology to inform decision making and compassionate patient care, employing information and communication technologies to deliver safe, high quality, efficient healthcare services in accordance with best practices, professional, and regulatory standards.
9. Demonstrates continuing growth toward a professional nursing identity that exhibits accountability, perspective, and a collaborative disposition, exemplifying behaviors that reflect the characteristics, norms, and values of a professional nurse.
10. Develops personal, professional, leadership, and self-reflection skills in order to foster personal health, resilience, well-being, and lifelong learning that supports the acquisition of nursing expertise, leadership, and a culture of caring.

Curricula framework

The National League for Nursing (NLN) called for reform in nursing education in 20 years ago that would require a paradigm shift from behaviorism and empiricism to human science and caring. Many nurses, advanced practice nurses, educators, researchers, and leaders aspire to sustain the art and science of nursing, while current nursing practice follows a medical-procedural perspective or medical model. Nurse educators are continually challenged to graduate new nurses whose practice is immersed in the values of ethics of caring as the moral obligation of nursing to society.

Caring Science is the epistemological-ontological foundation for the CNHS nursing programs’ curricula (BS, MS, DNP). Caring Science is a pluralistic body of nursing knowledge with a human science orientation. Concepts and principles are drawn from a humanistic-existentialist paradigm, constructive, feminism, and phenomenology. Caring Science provides a scientific-philosophical-moral context from which to explore, describe, and research human caring-healing phenomena that are integral to humanity.

Caring science, as s disciplinary foundation, guides both nursing practice and nursing education. The starting point for Caring Science is relation, as opposed to separation. It recognizes that mind, body, spirit, environment, and universe are interconnected. In Caring Science, persons are not dehumanized by being reduced to objects, which represents othering. Rather, Caring Science promotes genuine, equitable, human-to-human relationships.

In the Caring Science Curriculum Framework, the nurse educator shares control and power with students. While the nurse educator has authority based on their position, this authority is not on power control. Students also have authority in their own knowledge and experiences. Together, knowledge and understanding are shared for deeper knowledge, understanding, wisdom and ultimately, transformation of consciousness.

The Caring Science Curriculum Framework has five guiding components:

1. Modeling: Supporting one another to model one’s best self
2. Practice: Living day to day experiences between and among students and faculty, in and out of the classroom, virtual settings and clinical settings, to create a community environment of caring across the program.
3. Authentic dialogue: Creating space for students to dialogue, question, discuss, and explore ideas and knowledge to develop new insights, process discovery, and transform consciousness.
4. Affirmation: A philosophical perspective that guides the educator to hold students to their highest ethical ideal of self, even when the student cannot see that ideal for themselves at that time.
5. Reflection: Examining one’s action, thoughts, and feelings for self-awareness, self-critique, and engagement in learning and emancipatory change. Reflection plays an integral role in the practice of cultural humanity, an attitude of being open to and learning from differences, understanding, and respecting ither people’s ways of doing things, and desiring to recognize how one may hold power over others, in order to take action to fix power imbalances.

This Caring Science Curriculum Framework provides the philosophical-ethical lens and practical applications for implementing and living out the nursing curriculum. Curriculum extends beyond a transfer of knowledge and skills and is characterized as the interactions and exchanges between teachers and students for learning. Thus, the Caring Science Framework is broad and supports conceptual learning, competency-based learning, and lifelong learning in professional nursing practice. The goal is to develop caring, competent nurses using a student-centered approach to engage with people at all levels (individuals, families, communities, populations) to maximize the health of the Commonwealth and beyond.

Model of Baccalaureate Nursing Education

The model synthesizes Caring Science, concept- and competency-based nursing education, and the College's mission and vision, inclusive of its global health focus. The Infinity design represents the continuous interconnection between nurses and individuals, families, communities, populations, and the global community. The AACN 2021 Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice articulates the need for nurses to be "practice ready" and well-prepared to optimize client health in a rapidly evolving global health care environment. In baccalaureate nursing education, an integration of the liberal arts with nursing concepts and competencies promotes exposure to a broad UMass Dartmouth College of Nursing and Health Sciences worldview and self-understanding, preparing generalist nurses for practice in diverse environments. Nursing concepts are the organizing ideas representing nursing knowledge. They apply broadly across nursing practice settings and specialties. Nursing concepts are informed by nursing ways of knowing, including empirical, ethical, aesthetic, personal, sociopolitical, and cultural. The UMass Dartmouth Nursing undergraduate curriculum contains 45 nursing concepts and sub-concepts in two broad domains: Health, Wellness and Illness Concepts and Professional Nursing Practice Concepts. Curricular concepts are not static; they evolve over time based on the changing health care environment. Concepts in the curriculum representing 21st century trends emphases include social determinants of health, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and informatics and technology. Two concepts are integral concepts within every experiential course in the UMass Dartmouth Nursing undergraduate curriculum. The first, Clinical Judgment, is based on the need to prepare practice-ready nurses who can make decisions and manage client needs in a rapidly changing and complex environment. The second, Compassionate Care, reflects the emphasis on caring as our guiding value of the Caring Science curricular framework. The syllabus for each course identifies concepts that are newly introduced in the course (new curricular concept) and concepts that are re-introduced in the course at a higher level of learning (cumulative curricular concept). Not all concepts are formally presented in every course; however, it is expected that students will be able to make connections between the concepts of the course and all previously introduced concepts in the curriculum. Exemplars are specific content topics that relate to and represent identified concepts. They provide context to the concept and help to bring the concept to "life". Exemplars in the nursing curriculum are selected based on international, national, regional, and local indicators and advisory committee recommendations.

Nursing competencies are the "doings" of nursing, and require the synthesis and application of knowledge, attitudes, and skills to nursing practice. The UMass Dartmouth Nursing curricula include the 10 domains of nursing competencies identified in AACN Essentials 2021. Nursing concepts and competencies are intersectional; knowledge of multiple nursing concepts is needed for each competency.

AACN Essentials 2021 Competency Domains

1. Knowledge for Nursing Practice
2. Person-Centered Care
3. Population Health
4. Scholarship for Nursing Practice
5. Quality and Safety
6. Interprofessional Partnerships
7. Systems-Based Practice
8. Information and Healthcare Technologies
9. Professionalism
10. Personal, Professional, and Leadership Development

UMass Dartmouth Nursing graduates are caring, competent 21st century nurses, who Engage with persons at all levels (individuals, families, communities, populations, globally). With this engagement, characterized by respect, mutuality, and collaboration, the nurse promotes a caring environment for health and healing. There are three process goals for this engagement. These three processes are equally important; thus, they pervade the curriculum and direct nursing interventions. The processes are:

• Promoting Health and Wellness: Promotion of health and wellness includes all levels of prevention on the health to illness continuum. This occurs at all socioecological levels (individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and policy).
• Guiding Persons through the Health Care Experience: Nursing actions are aimed at promoting the growth of the person within the healthcare experience. The nurse forms a therapeutic alliance with the person to protect the integrity/wholeness of the individual and family, community, or population, and champions humanism within the healthcare system.
• Shaping the Health Environment: Occurs through policy and advocacy actions, with interprofessional and community collaboration, effective and efficient use of resources, and utilization of best evidence informed by health and nursing indicators, with application of ethical, legal, cultural, and diversity, equity, and inclusion concepts.

The Outcome Goal of nurse-person engagement is transformative healthcare practice to maximize the health of the Commonwealth and beyond.

Curricular Concepts and Definitions

Health, wellness, and illness concepts

Development: Development refers to the sequence of physical, psychosocial, and cognitive developmental changes that take place over the human lifespan. Occurs as a simultaneous, ongoing interrelationship with three aspects of change: physical growth, differentiation, and maturation.

Genetics/genomics: Genetics/genomics nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis of human response, and advocacy in the care of the genetic and genomic health of individuals, families, communities, and populations.

Health behaviors/maladaptive behaviors: Health behaviors are actions that promote, maintain, or restore health. Maladaptive behaviors involve patterns of actions that result in physiological and/or psychological problems for clients.

Interpersonal violence: Violence is the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community that results in either a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation. Interpersonal violence occurs between two people who have some form of prior or existing relationship, and encompasses physical, psychological, sexual, and neglect, and/or deprivation. This concept does not pertain to abuse or violence by strangers, street crime, gang warfare, or military conflict.

Homeostasis: Homeostasis is a steady state within the body, the maintenance of relatively constant internal conditions despite changes in either the internal or external environment.

Cellular regulation: Cellular regulation refers to all functions carried out within a cell to maintain homeostasis, including its responses to extracellular signals (e.g., hormones, cytokines, and neurotransmitters) and the way each cell produces an intracellular response

Elimination: Elimination is excretion of waste from the body. Bowel elimination is passage and dispelling of stool through the intestinal tract by means of intestinal smooth muscle contraction. Urinary elimination is passage of urine out of the urinary tract through the urinary sphincter and urethra

Gas exchange: The process by which oxygen is transported to cells and carbon dioxide is transported from cells.

Hormone regulation: Hormone regulation is defined as the physiologic mechanisms that regulate the secretion and action of hormones associated with the endocrine system.

Intracranial regulation: Intracranial regulation is defined as mechanisms or conditions that impact intracranial process and function.

Nutrition: Nutrition is a complex concept that involves multiple physiological processes. Nutrition is defined as the science of optimal cellular metabolism and its impact on health and disease.

Perfusion: Perfusion refers to the flow of blood through arteries and capillaries delivering nutrition and oxygen to the body. Perfusion is a normal physiologic process that requires the heart to generate sufficient cardiac output to transport blood through patent blood vessels for distribution in the tissues throughout the body.

Thermoregulation: Thermoregulation is the process of maintaining the core body temperature at a nearly constant value.

Protection and movement: Collectively, protection and movement refer to a broad series of functions that support and maintain the integrity of the human body. Protection refers to structures and processes that safeguard the human body from internal and external threats.

Movement is fundamental to life and is essential for the operation of bodily processes. Movement of the body is necessary to perform activities of daily living and support physical and mental health and well-being.

Immunity: Immunity is the normal physiologic process that provides an individual with protection or defense from disease. It is a characteristic that allows one to be resistant to a particular disease or condition.

Infection: Infection is the invasion and multiplication of microorganisms in body tissues, which may be unapparent, or the result of local cellular injury caused by competitive metabolism, toxins, intracellular replication, or antigen-antibody response.

Inflammation: Inflammation is an immunologic defense against tissue injury, infection, or allergy. Inflammation is a protective process initiated to minimize or remove the pathologic agent or stimulus triggering the inflammation, and to promote healing.

Mobility: Mobility refers to purposeful physical movement, including gross simple movements, fine complex movements, and coordination. Mobility is dependent on the synchronized efforts of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems as well as adequate oxygenation, perfusion, and cognition.

Sensory perception: Sensory perception can be defined as the ability to receive sensory input and, through various physiological processes in the body, translate the stimulus or data into meaningful information.

Tissue integrity: Tissue integrity is the state of structurally intact and physiologically functioning epithelial tissues such as the integument (including the skin and subcutaneous tissue) and mucous membranes.

Psychosocial influences: Psychosocial influences encompass the combination of psychological and social influences on health and well-being. Social influences include aspects of social structure and social processing that impact health and well-being; psychological influences include processes and meanings within the individual's mind that impact the individual's health and well-being. Physical and psychosocial influences on health and well-being are not mutually exclusive, as physical phenomena have social and psychological meanings.

Culture: Culture is defined as a pattern of shared attitudes, beliefs, self-definitions, norms, roles, and values that can occur among those who speak a particular language or live in a defined geographic region.

Grief and loss: Grief encompasses subjective emotions that occur in response to a loss in one’s life. Loss is a part of the life cycle and is experienced in the form of change, growth, and transition. Loss may be planned, expected, or sudden and can be beneficial, devastating, and debilitating. The emotional responses in grief are experienced in different ways, and when the grieving process is not completed, psychological and physiological health issues can occur. The nurse plays a role in facilitating the grieving process while caring for clients and families.

Family dynamics: Family dynamics is defined as the interrelationships between and among individual family members, or the forces at work within a family that produce particular behaviors or systems. Family refers to two or more individuals who depend on one another for emotional, physical, and economic support. The members of the family are self-defined.

Mood and affect: Mood is defined as the way a person feels, and the term affect is defined as the observable response a person has to his or her own feelings.

Sexuality: Sexuality is a central aspect of being human throughout life encompasses sex, gender identities and roles, sexual orientation, eroticism, pleasure, intimacy, and reproduction. Sexuality is experienced and expressed in thoughts, fantasies, desires, beliefs, attitudes, values, behaviors, practices, roles, and relationships. While sexuality can include all of these dimensions, not all of them are always experienced or expressed. Sexuality is influenced by the interaction of biological, psychological, social, economic, political, cultural, legal, historical, religious, and spiritual factors.

Social determinants of health: Determinants of health, in a broader term, include personal, social, economic, and environmental factors that impact health. Social determinants of health, a primary component of determinants of health “are the conditions in the environment where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality of life outcomes and risks.” The social determinants of health contribute to wide health disparities and inequities in areas such as economic stability, education quality and access, healthcare quality and access, neighborhood and built environment, and social and community context (Healthy People, 2030). Nursing practices such as assessment, health promotion, access to care, and patient teaching support improvements in health outcomes. The social determinants of health are closely interrelated with the concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion, health policy, and communication.

Spirituality: Spirituality is defined as a dynamic and intrinsic aspect of humanity through which people seek ultimate meaning, purpose, and transcendence and experience of relationship to self, family, others, community, society, nature and the significant or sacred. Spirituality is expressed through beliefs, values, traditions, and practices.

Stress and coping: Stress and coping are defined as a continual process that starts with an event that is perceived by the individual, perceived through intact information processing channels, appraised for scope and meaning, assessed as neutral, manageable, or threatening within current capacity of coping skills, resources, and abilities, ending ideally in a positive outcome of homeostasis and a feeling of well-being

Reproduction: Reproduction is the total process by which organisms produce offspring.

Professional Nursing Practice Concepts

Clinical judgment: Clinical judgment is the observed outcome of critical thinking and decision-making. It is an iterative process that uses nursing knowledge to observe and access presenting situations, identify a prioritized client concern, and generate the best possible evidence-based solution in order to deliver safe client care.

Communication: Communication is a process of interaction between people in which symbols are used to create, exchange, and interpret messages about ideas, emotions, and mind states.

Compassionate care: As an essential principle of person-centered care, compassionate care refers to the way nurses relate to others as human beings and involves “noticing another person’s vulnerability, experiencing an emotional reaction to this, and acting in some way with them in a way that is meaningful for people” (Murray & Tuqiri, 2020). Compassionate care is interrelated with other concepts such as caring, empathy, and respect and is also closely associated with patient satisfaction.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion: Collectively, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) refers to a broad range of individual, population, and social constructs. Diversity references a broad range of individual, population, and social characteristics, including but not limited to age; sex; race; ethnicity; sexual orientation; gender identity; family structures; geographic locations; national origin; immigrants and refugees; language; any impairment that substantially limits a major life activity; religious beliefs; and socioeconomic status. Inclusion represents environmental and organizational cultures in which people with diverse characteristics thrive. Inclusive environments require intentionality and embrace differences, not merely tolerate them (AACN, 2017; Bloomberg, 2019). Everyone works to ensure the perspectives and experiences of others are invited, welcomed, acknowledged, and respected in inclusive environments. Equity is the ability to recognize the differences in the resources or knowledge needed to allow individuals to fully participate in society, with the goal of overcoming obstacles to ensure fairness (Kranich, 2001). To have equitable systems, all people should be treated fairly, unhampered by artificial barriers, stereotypes, or prejudices (Cooper, 2016). Two related concepts that fit within DEI include structural racism and social justice

Ethics: Ethics is the study or examination of morality through a variety of different approaches. Morality is an accepted set of social standards (or morals) that guide behavior. How one responds to an ethical situation is a reflection of one’s core values, beliefs, and character.

Evidence: Evidence is defined as a testimony of facts tending to confirm or disprove any conclusions, or something that furnishes verification. Evidence, as opposed to data, is scrutinized by comparing it with other information and thus is more credible than raw data. Clinical experience and expert opinion can be considered as evidence, but these forms of evidence are usually given less merit because of their subjective nature. Evidence based nursing is the use of evidence to guide practice while incorporating key elements of patient involvement and the expertise of nurses.

Health policy: Health policy is goal-directed decision making about health that is the result of an authorized and public decision-making process. Health policy includes those actions, nonactions, directions, and/or guidance related to health that are decided by governments or other authorized entities.

Health promotion: Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. Disease prevention (also referred to as health protection) is considered a component of health promotion and refers to behaviors motivated by a desire to avoid illness, detect illness early, and manage illnesses when they occur

Healthcare quality: Healthcare quality is the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge.

Leadership and management: Leadership and management are skills nurses need to motivate and direct members of the health care team to provide safe and effective client care. Leadership is an interactive process that provides needed guidance and direction. Leadership involves three dynamic elements: a leader, a follower, and a situation. Leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal. The leader provides guidance to followers, directing them toward a vision and providing them support to enable their success in a situation or setting. Management is the process of leading and directing through the deployment and manipulation of resources. Management is often formalized through titles, positions, and authority, but these do not always ensure leadership.

Patient education: Patient education is defined as anything that provides patients and families with information that enables them to make informed choices about their care, health, and wellbeing, and that helps them gain knowledge and skills to participate in care or healthy living processes.

Professional identity: Professional identity in nursing is defined as a sense of oneself that is influenced by characteristics, norms, and values of the nursing discipline, resulting in an individual thinking, acting, and feeling like a nurse. Professional identity is part of the larger notion of identity. Within the concept of identity, one would find personal identity, with professional identity as a subset of personal identity.

Safety: Safety refers to freedom from accidental injury; ensuring patient safety involves the establishment of operational systems and processes that minimize the likelihood of errors and maximize the likelihood of intercepting them when they occur.

Technical skills: Technical skills are those nursing behaviors and actions, performed by the nurse, that assist in meeting the physical and emotional needs of the clients, families, and communities, and that are patient centered. These interventions are based on a professional body of knowledge and understanding of the natural sciences, behavioral sciences, nursing theory, nursing research, and past nursing experiences.

Technology and informatics: Technology describes the knowledge and use of tools, machines, materials, and processes to help solve human problems. Health information technology provides the umbrella framework to describe the comprehensive management of health information and its secure exchange between consumers, providers, government and quality entities, and consumers. Informatics is the science that encompasses information science and computer science to study the process, management, and retrieval of information. Health informatics is a discipline in which health data are stored, analyzed, and disseminated through the application of information and communication technology.

Nursing Program Plan – University Studies
Traditional BS

(For students admitted September 2020 or after)

Level 1 suggested courses and credits

Semester	Course (number and title)	Credits
Fall/semester 1	ENL 101 Critical Writing and Reading I (1A)	3
Fall/semester 1	CHM 105 Chemistry for Health Sciences F/SP	4
Fall/semester 1	MTH 148 College Algebra (1D)	3
Fall/semester 1	BIO 221/223 Anatomy & Physiology I (2A)	4
Fall/semester 1	NUR 101 Intro to University Skills (1E)	1
Spring/semester 2	ENL 102 Critical Writing and Reading II (1B)	3
Spring/semester 2	NUR 102 Concepts of the Prof Nursing Role I	3
Spring/semester 2	PSY 101 General Psychology (4A)	3
Spring/semester 2	BIO 222/224 Anatomy & Physiology II	4
Spring/semester 2	SOA Sociology-Anthropology 101 or 111 (4B or 4C)	3
Level 1 total		31

Level 1, Semester 1 total credits - 15 
Level 1, Semester 2 total credits - 16

Level 2 suggested courses and credits

Semester	Course (number and title)	Credits
Fall/semester 1	NUR 211 Concepts of Lifespan & Development (2B)	3
Fall/semester 1	NUR 212 Concepts of Patho/Pharm in Nursing	4
Fall/semester 1	MTH 147 Fundamentals of Statistics	3
Fall/semester 1	BIO 251/261 Medical Microbiology	4
Spring/semester 2	NUR 261 Concepts of Scholarship for Nsg. Prac (1C)	3
Spring/semester 2	NUR 270 Concepts of Foundational Nursing	5
Spring/semester 2	NUR 271 App of Foundational Nsg Concepts (EXP)	4
Spring/semester 2	The Nature of US/Global Society (4B or 4C)	3
Level 2 total		29

Level 2, Semester 1 total credits - 15 
Level 2, Semester 2 total credits - 16

Level 3 suggested courses and credits

Semester	Course (number and title)	Credits
Fall/semester 1	NUR 352 Concepts of Adult Health Nursing	3
Fall/semester 1	NUR 353 App of Adult Health Nsg Concepts (EXP)	4
Fall/semester 1	NUR 356 Concepts of Lrng Through Eng (5B) F/SP	3
Fall/semester 1	The Cultural World Literature (3A)	3
Fall/semester 1	Visual and Performing Arts (3B)	3
Spring/semester 2	NUR 360 Concepts of Family Nursing	5
Spring/semester 2	NUR 361 App of Family Nursing Concepts (EXP)	4
Spring/semester 2	PHL Philosophy (any class)	3
Spring/semester 2	Elective 1	3
Level 2 total		31

Level 3, Semester 1 total credits - 16
Level 3, Semester 2 total credits - 15

Level 4 suggested courses and credits

Semester	Course (number and title)	Credits
Fall/semester 1	NUR 370 Concepts of Global/Pop Health Nsg	3
Fall/semester 1	NUR 371 App of Global/Pop Health Concepts (EXP)	2
Fall/semester 1	NUR 380 Concepts of Mental Health Nursing	3
Fall/semester 1	NUR 381 App of Mental Health Nursing Concepts	2
Fall/semester 1	Elective 2	3
Spring/semester 2	NUR 424 Concepts of the Prof Nursing Role II	3
Spring/semester 2	NUR 470 Concepts of Nsg Care Across the Continuum	4
Spring/semester 2	NUR 471 App of Concepts of Nursing Care (5A)	6
Spring/semester 2	Elective 3	3
Level 4 total		16

Level 4, Semester 1 total credits - 16
Level 4, Semester 2 total credits - 13

Total university credits: 120

Total NUR Credits: 65

Guidelines for Progression in the Traditional BS Track

All prerequisite/corequisite requirements must be completed in sequence per College of Nursing and Health Sciences standards as per below:

Course	Prerequisites	Corequisites
NUR 101	no prerequisites	no corequisites
NUR 102	NUR 101	no corequisites
NUR 212	CHM 105 BIO 221 BIO 222 BIO 223 BIO 224	no corequisites
NUR 211	NUR 102	no corequisites
NUR 270	NUR 211 NUR 212 BIO 251 BIO 261	NUR 271
NUR 271	NUR 211 NUR 212 BIO 251 BIO 261	NUR 270
NUR 261	NUR 102 ENL 101 ENL 102 MTH 147 MTH 148	no corequisites
NUR 352	NUR 270 NUR 271	NUR 353
NUR 353	NUR 270 NUR 271	NUR 352
NUR 360	NUR 352 NUR 353	NUR 361
NUR 361	NUR 352 NUR 353	NUR 360
NUR 370	NUR 352 NUR 353	NUR 371
NUR 371	NUR 352 NUR 353	NUR 370
NUR 380	NUR 352 NUR 353	NUR 381
NUR 381	NUR 352 NUR 353	NUR 381
NUR 424	NUR 360 NUR 361 NUR 370 NUR 371 NUR 380 NUR 381	NUR 470 NUR 471
NUR 471	NUR 360 NUR 361 NUR 370 NUR 371 NUR 380 NUR 381	NUR 470 NUR 424
NUR 470	NUR 360 NUR 361 NUR 370 NUR 371 NUR 380 NUR 381	NUR 471 NUR 424

The minimum passing grade for NUR, CHEM, MTH and BIO courses is a C+ or above.
ENL 101/102 must be completed freshman year.
MTH 147/148 must be completed prior to level 2 semester 2.

Note: PSY, SOA, PHL, elective(s), and 3A, 3B and 4B/C courses may be completed at any point in the program plan.

(Approved 11/2023)

Accelerated Second Degree (ABSN)

View course descriptions in the UMass Dartmouth catalog.

Term 1 suggested courses and credits

• NUR 106 – Introduction to Professional Nursing - 3 credits

Total Term 1 credits: 3

Term 2 (September-December) suggested courses and credits

• Nur 230 Patho & Pharm I - 3 credits
• Nur 235 Patho & Pharm II - 3 credits
• Nur 242 Holistic Health Assessment - 3 credits
• Nur 250 Knowledge Foundations in Nursing - 3 credits
• Nur 255 EXP Learn: Knowledge Foundations* - 4 credits

Total Term 2 credits: 16

Winter intersession suggested courses and credits

• Nur 214 Scholarly Inquiry - 3 credits

Total Winter intersession credits: 3

Term 3 (January-April) suggested courses and credits

• Nur 326 Care Adults Acute/Chronic Illness - 4 credits
• Nur 327 Exp. Learning – Adults Illness - 4 credits
• Nur 330 Community Health Nursing - 3 credits
• Nur 331 Exp.Learn: Community Health Nurs* - 2 credits

Total Term 3 credits: 13

Term 4 (May-August) suggested courses and credits

• Nur 338 EXP Learn: Family Health* - 4 credits
• Nur 339 Family Health Nursing - 3 credits
• Nur 340 Psych/Mental Health - 3 credits
• Nur 341 EXP. Learn: Psych/Mental Health* - 2 credits

Total Term 4 credits: 15

Term 5 (September-December) suggested courses and credits

• Nur 408 Transition to Prof Practice - 3 credits
• Nur 450 Adults - Complex Health Problems - 3 credits
• Nur 457 Persons with Complex Health problems - 3 credits

Total Term 5 credits: 12

Total program credits: 59

*This course includes clinical experience

RN to BS Degree Online Track

(For students admitted after September 2018)

Spring, Summer and Fall Admissions

Semester	First 7-week online session	Second 7-week online session
Semester 1	NUR 301 Transition to Baccalaureate Nursing - 3 credits	NUR 306 Professional Nursing - 3 credits
Semester 2	NUR 214 Scholarly Inquiry in Nursing - 3 credits	NUR 322 Holistic Health Assessment for RNs - 3 credits
Semester 3	NUR 302 Selected Mech. of Disease & Related Pharm - 3 credits	NUR 328 Population Health Nursing - 3 credits
Semester 4	NUR 410 Healthcare Informatics - 3 credits	NUR 452 Nursing Care of Persons w/ Chronic Illness - 3 credits
Semester 5	NUR 409 Leadership in Nursing (14-wks) - 3 credits	Elective - 3 credits

Fast track plan

Semester	First and second 7-week online session	Credits
Semester 1	NUR 301 NUR 302 NUR 306	9
Semester 2	NUR 214 NUR 322 NUR 328 Elective (taken the summer before semester 2 or 3)	13
Semester 3	NUR 409 NUR 410 NUR 452	9

Credit breakdown

31 RN-BS program credits + 45 RN Portfolio credits + 45 non-nursing credits (transfer credits or UMass Dartmouth credits) = 121 credits

• Students in the Undergraduate RN-BS Online Track Program must take a minimum of 31 credits at UMass Dartmouth (28 RN-BS credits and one 3 credit non-nursing course).
• Required non-nursing courses are taken during Summer online sessions. See Online & Continuing Education Course offerings.
• The number of required non-nursing courses varies for each student based on their transfer credits. RN-BS students may transfer 45 or more credits to U Mass Dartmouth for prior non-nursing courses taken at other accredited colleges or universities per the U Mass Dartmouth transfer policy. RN-BS students receive 45 Nursing Professional Portfolio credits at UMass Dartmouth for completion of an accredited Associate Degree Nursing Program and successful NCLEX licensure.
• RN-BS applicants must maintain a current copy of their RN license on file with the College of Nursing and Health Sciences.
• RN-BS students must also meet University Studies requirements and other UMass Dartmouth academic criteria for graduation, including (but not limited to) a minimum of 120 total credits and a GPA of 2.0 or higher for graduation.

In addition to the College of Nursing and Health Sciences curriculum framework, the undergraduate nursing core curriculum is guided by the American Nurses Association Scopes and Standards for Nursing and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Essentials for Baccalaureate Education. Curricular competencies are also congruent with the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education Nurse of the Future Core Competencies (2018).

ANA Scope and Standards of Practice

Standards of Nursing Practice

1. Assessment
2. Diagnosis
3. Outcomes identification
4. Planning
5. Implementation
   1. Coordination of dare
   2. Health teaching & health promotion
6. Evaluation

Standards of Professional Performance

7. Ethics
8. Advocacy
9. Respectful and equitable practice
10. Communication
11. Collaboration
12. Leadership
13. Education
14. Scholarly inquiry
15. Quality of practice
16. Professional practice evaluation
17. Resource stewardship
18. Environmental health

The Scope and Standards of Practice for Nursing informs and guides current professional nursing practice. The Standards of Nursing Practice and Standards of Professional Performance are competencies that all Registered Nurses are expected to achieve.

 

The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice

This Essentials document (AACN, 2021) serves to transform baccalaureate nursing education by providing the curricular elements and framework for building the baccalaureate nursing curriculum for the 21st century. These Essentials address key stakeholders’ recommendations and landmark documents such as the AACN's Vision for Academic Nursing (AACN, 2019). A primary goal of the Essentials is to provide consistency in graduate outcomes with an emphasis on demonstration of competencies needed for nursing practice.

Read The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education Executive Summary

Educational Mobility Statement

Along with our professional guiding standards, the UMass Dartmouth College of Nursing and Health Sciences supports the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing Educational Mobility Position Statement and the roadmap set up by the 2010 IOM/RWJ Future of Nursing Report. All programs are designed to enhance education mobility to build the nursing workforce by providing a solid, well-rounded foundation to nursing students, recognizing, and appealing to various individual student needs.

Honors and Research Fellowship Programs

University Honors College*

The Honors College aims to provide students with a rigorous educational experience that emphasizes high-impact learning practices and enrichment opportunities designed to help students mature into skilled researchers, innovators, and artists. In addition, the Honors College will promote collaboration between students, between students and faculty, and between students and the community. We shall draw on the regional resources that make UMass Dartmouth unique, such as our historical and cultural resources, to develop a College that has a local focus with a global vision. The College emphasizes the interactions of three dimensions that result in an optimal teaching and learning environment - integrated community, promotion of academic excellence, and bounded freedom - to allow innovation in a supportive environment and give students freedom and responsibility for their education.

Graduating as a Commonwealth Honors Scholar requires you to take a minimum of 24 credits. These are broken down as 21 coursework credits and a minimum of 3 APEX credits (this is the final project that all Honors students complete). You may take 6 of these coursework credits by Contracting (Honorizing) a regular non-Honors course at the 200 level or higher. In some cases, a college or department may identify a required course as a "carve-out." This means that Honors students will be taking the class with non-Honors students but will be enrolled in a different section identified as an Honors section. "Carve-out" classes will be designed to produce greater intellectual engagement with the material. Students can expect to meet 3-4 times per semester with the instructor outside of the scheduled class time.

The University Honors College is part of the statewide Commonwealth Honors Program. Students who fulfill the requirements of the Honors College graduate as Commonwealth Scholars. The Commonwealth Scholar honor is bestowed upon graduating seniors at the annual Honors Convocation ceremony in April and is inscribed on the student's diploma and transcript.

In order to graduate as a Commonwealth Scholar, a student must: maintain an overall university GPA of 3.2 or higher; complete at least 24 credits of Honors course work with a grade of B or higher in each course (as described above); complete an original APEX project under faculty supervision, for which the student earns at least 3 credits; and publicly present their APEX project in an appropriate venue, such as a conference or poster presentation.

Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program*

The Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program is designed to enhance the educational experience of undergraduate nursing students considering education beyond the baccalaureate degree. Promising students will have the opportunity to work closely with faculty on all phases of research projects.

Criteria for selection

Interested sophomore and junior level students in the BS track and RN-BS track students will apply in the spring semester before the fellowship is due to start. Applications will be made available in class, on the College of Nursing and Health Sciences website and on the class bulletin boards located in the Learning Resource Center.
Interested students should meet the following criteria:

1. Serious interest in pursuing education beyond the baccalaureate level.
2. A cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.
3. Demonstrated clarity in writing style.
4. Interest in participating in the nursing research process.
5. Completing the nursing research course prior to this experience is helpful but not required.

Application

All applicants are requested to submit an application and a 1000-word essay that describes his/her interest in participating in the program, future goals and possible research interests.

Time commitment

Students will be expected to work closely with faculty on current faculty research projects. The time will vary from 2 to 4 hours a week depending on faculty and fellow needs. Fellows are expected to work with the same faculty member until graduation.

Responsibilities

Students will assist faculty with their research by searching for articles, entering research data, analyzing research data with faculty assistance, editing articles and presentations, enrolling subjects, and collecting data (when appropriate). Students may also work on funded grants in conjunction with graduate Research Assistants.

Recognition

Undergraduate fellows will be recognized at the Honors Convocation in May. The names of the undergraduate fellows will also be inscribed on a plaque in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences lobby and awarded recognition by the CNHS. Undergraduate Research Fellows will also participate in a research related opportunity that may include the chance to attend a conference with faculty to present work, student membership in a professional nursing organization, or subscription to a professional journal of the student's choice.

*Students in the ABS track are not eligible for these programs

College of Nursing and Health Sciences Student Organizations

NSNA: UMass Dartmouth Chapter

The National Student Nurses' Association (NSNA), established in 1953, is the national organization of nursing students in the United States. NSNA’s chief purpose is to "foster the professional development of nursing students." The NSNA is autonomous, student-financed, and student-run. It is the voice of all nursing students speaking out on issues of concern to nursing students and nursing. UMassD SNA is the UMass Dartmouth Chapter of the Massachusetts Student Nurses' Association, a constituent or state member of NSNA. Any student enrolled in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences is eligible for membership. All interested students are urged to become members and support the group's activities.

Theta Kappa Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing**

Sigma Theta Tau is the International Nursing Honor Society established in 1922. The UMass Dartmouth College of Nursing and Health Sciences received a charter for the Theta Kappa Chapter in April 1986 and inducted 229 charter members.

A junior or senior nursing student in the top 35% of the class will be invited to apply for membership. The application process will be announced about mid-year, and application forms will be made available to eligible and interested students. Professional and scientific programs sponsored by the Theta Kappa Chapter are open to all nursing students.

**Students in the ABS track are not eligible to apply for membership until after graduation

Student Representation on College of Nursing and Health Sciences Committees

The CNHS welcomes student participation on nursing program committees. Having students involved and participating in program committees enriches the process and offers opportunities for valuable student feedback. Students do not necessarily have to attend each meeting (which are generally held on a monthly basis).

If several students participate, attendance may be rotated. While several students are encouraged to attend committee meetings, the vote of only one student member, on committee actions, will be counted. Meeting times for committees vary by semester. A list of the committees and the times of meetings will be posted on the CNHS website each semester. Committee chairs will inform students of meeting dates and times.
If students are interested in participating on one or more of these committees, please email the Assistant Dean, or designee, or chair of the committee