Graduate Preceptor Handbook: Course Descriptions, Objectives and Expectations

Course Description

This course builds on basic skills of individual health assessment. It includes assessment of physiological and psychosocial processes relevant to the health of all age groups, and the assessment of selected human pathologies. Advanced assessment skills and tools necessary to identify health care needs and apply health maintenance protocols are included.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate sound critical thinking and clinical decision-making utilizing health assessment tools to develop advanced, refined health assessment skills.
2. Develop a comprehensive data-base, including complete functional assessment, episodic and complete health history including a three-generation pedigree and physical examination appropriate for the individual’s health status, developmental, gender, cultural and ethnic background, as well as, end of life considerations.
3. Perform a risk assessment of the client including assessing lifestyle and other risk factors related to all health dimensions including common emotional illnesses.
4. Select and interpret the appropriate laboratory and other diagnostic tests taking into consideration factors of cost, access, quality, ethics, and safety and their influence on healthcare.
5. Integrate assessment findings, along with screening and diagnostic strategies, with pathological and physiological changes, to generate differential diagnoses and establish an accurate diagnosis.
6. Critically synthesize data, research and evidence to develop an effective and appropriate evidence-based plan of care for the client, taking into consideration personal history and health status, gender, life circumstances and genetic, ethical, cultural, ethnic and developmental variations to ensure the delivery of high quality care to patients in the primary care setting.
7. Demonstrate information literacy through utilization of current recommendations, evidence based-practice and clinical guidelines for disease prevention, health protection, anticipatory guidance, counseling and health promotion in an individualized application which is appropriate to age level, gender, cultural variations, education needs and personal history including considerations for the rural and underserved.
8. Integrate and communicate research literature and theory readings into clinical laboratory practice knowledge effectively both orally and in writing.

Course Description

The emphasis of the course is on the application of evidence-based knowledge to clinical practice in primary care settings. Students will strengthen their health history and physical examination skills in the formulation of differential diagnoses and clinical decision-making relative to common primary care conditions and developmental variations such as pregnancy. Development of initial primary care procedural skills along with ordering and interpreting diagnostic testing will be included. This course provides the basis for integrating clinical data with knowledge of pathophysiology to formulate diagnostic hypotheses for clients across the lifespan.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate information literacy in the management and delivery of healthcare in primary care settings.
2. Collect & organize clinical data using knowledge of specific illnesses and symptom complexes, pharmacotherapeutics, genomics, and knowledge from related sciences to formulate diagnostic hypotheses/differentials.
3. Engage in patient-centered care to formulate and implement a holistic treatment plan, focusing on health promotion, illness prevention, and illness management, while incorporating cultural, environmental, and genetic assessment information.
4. Maintain a high level of professional accountability, uphold professional standards, and function within the scope of practice for family nurse practitioners.
5. Apply ethical and legal principles to advance practice nursing decisions in primary care settings.
6. Utilize current evidence-based practice guidelines and research to ensure the delivery of high-quality care to patients in the primary care setting.
7. Use clinical investigative skills to identify practice issues at the individual, population, systems/organization, and policy levels.
8. Participate in intraprofessional and interprofessional collaboration to improve patient outcomes through application of evidence-based care and to enhance healthcare delivery.
9. Contribute to a culture of nursing excellence through quality improvement practices.

Course Description

Emphasis is placed on obtaining an accurate health history and performing an appropriate physical examination skill to formulate differential diagnoses and utilize clinical decision-making relative to common primary care conditions. Developmental variations, culture and patient preference are considered to determine appropriate diagnostic tests as well as pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatment plans.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate information literacy in the management and delivery of healthcare in primary care settings.
2. Collect and organize clinical data using knowledge of specific illnesses and symptom complexes, pharmacotherapeutics, genomics and knowledge from related sciences to formulate diagnostic hypotheses/differentials.
3. Engage in patient-centered care to formulate and implement a holistic treatment plan, focusing on health promotion, illness prevention and illness management, while incorporating cultural, environmental and genetic assessment information.
4. Maintain a high level of professional accountability, uphold professional standards and function within the scope of practice for family nurse practitioners.
5. Apply ethical and legal principles to advance practice nursing decisions in primary care settings.
6. Utilize current evidence-based practice guidelines and research to ensure the delivery of high-quality care to patients in the primary care setting.
7. Use clinical investigative skills to identify practice issues at the individual, population, systems/organization and policy levels.
8. Participate in intraprofessional and interprofessional collaboration to improve patient outcomes through application of evidence-based care and to enhance healthcare delivery.
9. Contribute to a culture of nursing excellence through quality improvement practices.

Course Description

Emphasizes the integration of pathophysiology and specific disease and symptom complexes in the formulation of differential diagnoses and clinical management of acute and chronic health problems.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate information literacy in the management and delivery of healthcare in primary care settings, utilizing technology to document health history and physical examination findings, diagnosis and treatment plans.
2. Collect & organize clinical data using knowledge of acute and chronic illnesses and symptom complexes, pharmacotherapeutics, genomics and knowledge from related sciences to formulate diagnostic hypotheses/differentials.
3. Engage in patient-centered care to formulate and implement a holistic treatment plan, focusing on illness management, while incorporating health promotion, illness prevention and cultural, environmental and genetic assessment information.
4. Maintain a high level of professional accountability, uphold professional standards, and function within the scope of practice for family nurse practitioners.
5. Independently apply ethical and legal principles to advance practice nursing decisions in primary care settings.
6. Utilize current evidence-based practice guidelines and research to ensure the delivery of high-quality care to patients in the primary care setting.
7. Use clinical investigative skills to identify practice issues at the individual, population, systems/organization and policy levels.
8. Participate in intraprofessional and interprofessional collaboration and teamwork to improve patient outcomes through application of evidence-based care and to enhance healthcare delivery.
9. Contribute to a culture of nursing excellence through quality improvement practices.
10. Provide timely, knowledgeable, and appropriate interventions and/or referrals to patients in a family practice setting to provide safe, continuous care.
11. Identify appropriate research questions arising from clinical observations in primary care settings.

Course Description

The clinical internship offers the advanced practice nursing student the opportunity to synthesize and apply theoretical concepts derived from nursing and other health-related disciplines to the clinical practice settings for the provision of primary care to clients across the lifespan. Independent and interdependent clinical decision making is expected and interdisciplinary collaboration and referral are emphasized.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Provide safe, evidence-based, holistic, continuous, comprehensive, and patient-centered health management, health promotion and disease prevention, and palliative and end-of-life care to patients and families across the lifespan and through the health/illness continuum.
2. Synthesize clinical knowledge from the natural/behavioral sciences, nursing and evidence-based practice as a foundation for managing physical and emotional illness.
3. Analyze the role of the nurse practitioner in health care settings and the dynamic health care arena
4. and demonstrate leadership to practice within the scope of practice.
5. Demonstrate competence in the use of technology and information literacy as part of clinical decision making in the management and quality improvement of clinical practice.
6. Collaborate with patients and inter-professional colleagues to develop and implement a treatment plan for health promotion, illness prevention, and/or illness management incorporating cultural, environmental and genetic assessment information.
7. Identify ethical considerations in healthcare practice and utilize ethical foundations to propose practice solutions.
8. Analyze and evaluate evidence-based research, guidelines, and practice knowledge to provide the full spectrum of care, to seek out answers to clinical questions, and to improve the healthcare delivery system and the quality of care.

Course Description

Communication skills, comprehensive history-taking techniques, advanced psychosocial and physical assessment skills, screening/diagnostic testing, and diagnostic reasoning skills required in advanced nursing practice are developed. The focus is on developing these skills from an evidence-based, culturally responsive perspective.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Utilize therapeutic communication skills to conduct and document a comprehensive mental health assessment across the lifespan.
2. Develop communication techniques to address challenging interviewing situations.
3. Identify screening tools and instruments that will aid in screening and diagnosis of mental health disorders
4. Conduct a suicide risk assessment of individuals and organizations.
5. Examine legal, ethical, and professional issues associated with suicidal homicidal risk and involuntary detainment or hospitalization.
6. Apply the American Psychiatric Association system of classification of mental illness to establish a working and differential diagnosis.
7. Apply environmental, psychosocial, developmental and cultural factors in establishing differential diagnosis.
8. Utilize evidence- based approaches to establish initial treatment approach for major mental health disorder.
9. Incorporate prevention and health promotion strategies into the treatment approach.
10. Deliver an effective written case presentation of a mental health disorder with consideration of differentiating between diagnosis and determining evidence based treatment approach.

Course Description

This course expands clinical training in the full role of the psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. Emphasis is on the integration of content areas to advance competences in the ethical, safe, collaborative and evidence-based provision of mental health care for all ages.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Establish therapeutic and culturally sensitive relationships with clients and families.
2. Diagnose common conditions relevant to student’s area of practice.
3. Develop evidence-based management plans (including pharmacological interventions) to address conditions relevant to student’s area of practice.
4. Integrate legal, ethical, socioeconomic, psychosocial and cultural factors into delivery of care.
5. Evaluate the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions and adjust the management plan as needed.
6. Provide education to patients and families.
7. Adapt teaching approaches to meet the learning and cultural needs of the client, family and/or caregiver.
8. Participate in and/or lead interprofessional teams to meet client needs.
9. Relate the role of the nurse practitioner to various patient care situation.

Course Description

Program coursework is delivered online and includes 240 clinical hours. Advanced nursing practice in adult-gerontology acute care focuses on providing advanced nursing care to adult, older adult and elderly patients with acute, chronic and critical conditions. This certificate builds upon the Family Nurse Practitioner degree and prepares graduates to work in many different clinical settings providing advanced nursing care to patients in critical conditions, with chronic or episodic illnesses and/or with acute medical needs. These settings include but are not limited to clinics, physicians’ offices, hospitals, retirement homes, hospices and private practices. Graduates are prepared to sit for ANCC.

Learning Objectives

1. Develop scientific knowledge regarding the pathophysiology of common acute, chronic, and critical illnesses and identify how medical co-morbidities may impact that physiology in the management of young adults, older adults, and frail elderly patients experiencing acute illness, exacerbation of chronic illness, or terminal illness.
2. Understand the importance of an appropriate differential diagnosis list in acute, chronic and critical illness and learn to develop a complete differential in this patient population.
3. Identify rationale for diagnostic testing options and appropriate interpretation in the diagnosis and management of acute, chronic, and critical illness.
4. Develop evidence-based treatment plan including pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions as well as appropriate referrals when indicated in the management of young adults, older adults, and frail elderly patients experiencing acute illness, exacerbation of chronic illness, or terminal illness.
5. Utilize resources available to identify evidence-based treatment guidelines and implement them into developing plan of care for of young adults, older adults, and frail elderly patients experiencing acute illness, exacerbation of chronic illness, or terminal illness.
6. Provide peer review to enhance management of patient conditions.

Course Description

Program coursework is delivered online and includes 300 clinical hours. Advanced nursing practice in adult-gerontology acute care focuses on providing advanced nursing care to adult, older adult and elderly patients with acute, chronic and critical conditions. This certificate builds upon the Family Nurse Practitioner degree and prepares graduates to work in many different clinical settings providing advanced nursing care to patients in critical conditions, with chronic or episodic illnesses and/or with acute medical needs. These settings include but are not limited to clinics, physicians’ offices, hospitals, retirement homes, hospice and private practice. Graduates are prepared to sit for ANCC Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AGACNP-BC®) certification exam.

Course Objectives

1. Develop scientific knowledge regarding the pathophysiology of common acute, chronic and critical illnesses and identify how medical co-morbidities may impact that physiology in the management of young adults, older adults, and frail elderly patients experiencing acute illness, exacerbation of chronic illness, or terminal illness.
2. Understand the importance of an appropriate differential diagnosis list in acute, chronic, and critical illness and learn to develop a complete differential in this patient population.
3. Identify rationale for diagnostic testing options and appropriate interpretation in the diagnosis and management of acute, chronic, and critical illness.
4. Develop evidence-based treatment plan including pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions as well as appropriate referrals when indicated in the management of young adults, older adults and frail elderly patients experiencing acute illness, exacerbation of chronic illness, or terminal illness.
5. Utilize resources available to identify evidence-based treatment guidelines and implement them into developing plan of care for of young adults, older adults, and frail elderly patients experiencing acute illness, exacerbation of chronic illness or terminal illness.

Course Description

This course provides a practicum experience for the AGACNP with qualified preceptors in the clinical setting.

Course Objective

1. Obtain a comprehensive history and perform a complete physical exam for acutely ill patients.
2. Identify appropriate differential and final diagnoses based on patients’ chief complaint, history and physical examination.
3. Order and interpret appropriate diagnostic tests based upon differential diagnoses.
4. Triage acuity of need for testing, treatment and/or intervention, and identify appropriate care setting necessary to safely care for patients based on acuity, stability, and resources available.
5. Review, critique, and apply evidence to appropriately assess, diagnose, and treat young adults, older adults, and frail elderly patients experiencing acute illness, exacerbation of chronic illness, or terminal illness.
6. Identify educational needs of patients and their families on prevention and management of acute illness and home management.
7. Consider cultural, environmental, and genetic/genomic information to develop a patient-centered plan of care.
8. Telehealth is healthcare that is delivered through electronic means. Telehealth encompasses store-and-forward, remote patient monitoring, mobile health, and live audio-visual visits. Clinics utilize telehealth through various modalities. Students completing clinical hours at sites utilizing telehealth are expected to participate in telehealth visits in the same manner and at the same level of involvement as face-to-face visits. Student outcomes are equivalent for telehealth and face-to-face visits.