NURS 495 Senior Practicum

The focus of this clinical course is development of clinical decision-making skills and refinement of clinical coordinating behaviors with groups of clients with emphasis on the designer/manager/coordinator care role. The course will provide opportunities for students to synthesize theoretical knowledge, clinical skills, nursing process, and professional role behaviors in clinical laboratories and through peer seminars. The clinical experience will focus on the care of groups of clients in a variety of settings in collaboration with clinical nurse preceptors. Grantham Option: Three credit hours: 1 lecture hour per week, 90 hours total clinical laboratory hours flexibly scheduled in collaboration with selected, approved, on-site clinical nurse preceptors. International Options: Thailand. This option will focus upon the development of clinical decision-making skills and refinement of clinical coordinating behaviors with groups of patients in an international setting, specifically in Thailand. The option will provide opportunities for students to synthesize theoretical knowledge, clinical skills, nursing process, and professional role behaviors with an emphasis on global health issues and cross-cultural understanding of cultural diversity. The clinical experience will focus on the care of patient groups in an urban setting of Chiang Mai and in the rural villages of Thailand. Clinical nurse preceptors will be Messiah College faculty, Thai nurses and Thai student nurses. A community health project will be included. Enrollment recruitment will focus on students who have career aspirations for international nursing or mission nursing. Zambia. The focus of this option is upon the development of clinical decision-making skills and refinement of clinical coordinating behaviors with groups of clients in an international setting, specifically at Macha Mission Hospital, Zambia. The option will provide opportunities for students to synthesize theoretical knowledge, clinical skills, nursing process, and professional role behaviors with an emphasis on global health issues and cross-cultural understanding of cultural diversity. The clinical experience will focus on the care of client groups in a rural African community greatly impacted by the Sub-Saharan AIDS pandemic and two other diseases of poverty targeted by the Global Fund: malaria and tuberculosis. Clinical nurse preceptors will be Messiah nursing faculty and Zambian nurses, if qualified, and as determined by Macha Hospital's Sister Tutor and Medical Director. Enrollment recruitment will focus on students who have career aspirations for international nursing or mission nursing.