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Licensed Practical Nurses - New Jersey LPN School
Overview
The Practical Nursing program prepares students to become licensed practical nurses. Students learn to perform tasks and undertake responsibilities core to the provision of providing nursing care, including health counseling, support and restorative care. The program is comprehensive and includes both theory and clinical components to enable program graduates to develop the knowledge, skills and competencies necessary to practice confidently and safely in a rapidly changing health care system. The Practical Nursing program is organized and based on the humanistic model -- every person must be recognized as a unique being, more than and different from a sum of their integrated parts. The program consists of 1,459 hours of education and is arranged in terms to provide students with a gradual, step-by-step, simple to complex, learning environment.
Program Mission
The United States is in the midst of a shortage in healthcare providers that is expected to intensify. This problem is both a supply and a demand shortage, combining a broad range of issues that include: steep population growth in several states, limited enrollment opportunities for students at educational institutions offering healthcare training, an aging workforce and a baby boom bubble that will require intense health care services. The Practical Nursing program was established to help bridge this labor gap by ensuring a pipeline of highly educated practical nurses that are able to join the health team and contribute to meeting the total needs of the patient.
Program Philosophy
The faculty believes that proper nursing care requires the nurse to understand the physical, emotional, social, economic, and spiritual needs of the patient in an ever changing, complex society. Nursing education must incorporate the following components as described:
Nursing is a humanistic art and science which incorporates evidence-based principles from the biological, physical and behavioral sciences. The nurse cooperates with members of the health care team to assess health needs and assists the client to perform those activities which contribute to health. The goal of nursing is to assist the client in adaptation throughout the life cycle. The nurse contributes to this goal through the use of the critical thinking inclusive of nursing process and evidence-based research.
Humans are unique and have ever-changing needs. They are comprised of biological, spiritual, psychosocial, and cultural variables, which are fluid, constantly interacting with the changing environment. The environment includes focal, contextual and residual stimuli which impact their lives. As individuals move through the life span, inhabiting different phases of development, wellness and illness, and roles as individuals, members of families, groups, and cultures, nurses assess, plan, prioritize, implement and modify care based on the best evidence to promote human adaptation.
Health is a vibrant and dynamic phenomenon that results from cognator and regulator responses to environmental stimuli leading to adaptation. The optimally functioning state of psychosocial, biological, cultural, and spiritual realities of health are objectively measured by biological and behavioral measures, and subjectively measured by the human’s perceived realities. Nurses view health needs through a humanistic and holistic context, and provide interventions based on caring, understanding, and best evidence to promote risk reduction, and for symptom/illness management.
Environment is a confluence of social, scientific, economic, legal, political, cultural, physical, and psychological factors. Internal and external environmental stressors, the focal, contextual and residual stimuli influence human adaptation as individuals interact with their environment on a daily basis. Effective nursing care requires understanding and embracing the stimuli surrounding and affecting their patients to better develop and implement holistic care plans.
The teaching-learning process is essential to the practice of nursing. Teaching and learning can be capitalized through a gradual, step-by-step, simple to complex process that correlates through concurrent didactic instruction. In addition, teaching and learning in nursing requires extensive “hands-on” practice in a variety of clinical settings. The process of teaching and learning is fostered by an open, receptive and democratic environment which nurtures the individual's efforts and motivation to learn. Teaching and learning are influenced by the individual differences in ability and background of its participants. All teaching and learning should bring individuals closer to self-actualization. The teaching and learning process is effective when based on best evidence and desirable changes are validated in the learner’s competence.
Program Objectives
Students in the Practical Nursing program shall acquire the following competencies:
- Apply the nursing process as a systematic problem solving method to provide effective care to culturally diverse individuals, families, and groups.
- Use nursing theory and theory from other disciplines as a basis for the nursing process to promote health and healing.
- Use therapeutic nursing to achieve optimal level of health.
- Demonstrate safety and effectiveness in performance of nursing skills.
- Employ critical thinking to provide the highest level of nursing care from patient assessment to evaluation.
- Utilize ethical principles to resolve ethical dilemmas in a health care environment.
- Accept responsibility and accountability for adhering to the high standards of nursing practice as mandated by the nurse practice act.
- Implement strategies to stimulate and support change needed to improve the quality of health care practice.
- Adapt care in consideration of the client’s values, customs, culture, religion and/or beliefs.
- Be prepared to take the NCLEX-PN licensing examination.
- Display responsible behaviors and a commitment to excellence in interactions with patients, families, colleagues, and employing organizations.
- Demonstrate understanding of boundaries and the legal scope of professional practice as a licensed practical nurse.
- Utilize professional values and standards as a basis for ethical nursing practice.
- Communicate effectively using interpersonal skills combined with information technology.
Program Structure
The Center has divided its curriculum into four, 12 week terms. Each one focuses and builds on concepts, skills, and outcomes learned in the prior term. Each course in a term includes specific knowledge and skills that are required to be mastered for course completion. The Practical Nursing program consists of 1,459 hours of classroom and clinical education. Theory and clinical experiences are conducted concurrently throughout the program. The theoretical and clinical work is basically equally distributed.
1st Term
Through Fundamentals of Nursing our students are introduced and educated on the roles of providers of care, manager of care, member of the discipline of nursing and overview of the human experience of health, illness and death. This course serves as the foundation for indoctrinating our students concerning Nursing, Humans, Health and Environment. Students examine fundamental concepts of culture, spirituality, grief and grieving, with application of concepts of stress, adaptation and coping to their role as learner of health promotion and wellness behaviors. Students also develop the knowledge of nursing practice and the law. Concepts of liability, malpractice, negligence and HIPPA are examined and discussed. Moreover, ethical responsibilities and the concepts of ethics in nursing as they relate to humanistic approach to patient care are discussed.
Through Anatomy & Physiology, students develop knowledge in structure and function of the human body, and some of the effects that individual choices have on its development. During this term, students develop their medical terminology vocabulary, which enables them to use their knowledge throughout the health field. At the end of the first term, students will have obtained the basic knowledge and achieved the required competencies for certified nursing assistant, which makes the students eligible and prepared to take the licensure exam to become a certified nursing assistant.
2nd Term
In the second term, the progression of integrating our philosophy and organizing framework continues through the following courses: Adult Nursing I and Pharmacology. Our Adult Nursing I course focuses on applying and augmenting the knowledge and clinical skills acquired from Fundamentals and other previous courses. Students are required to perform at a more advanced level, including correlating theory to clinical practice and applying our philosophies in Nursing, Health and Environment to clinical practice at a higher level. The concepts of body mechanics, pharmacology, interpersonal relationships, communication, diet therapy and the physical and biological sciences are also stressed throughout the course.
Through Pharmacology our students gain an understanding of specific drug groups emphasizing physiological classifications and generic nomenclature. The course integrates the knowledge of physiology, chemistry, nursing fundamentals, calculations, interpretation of medication orders, as well as the knowledge and ability to administer medications safely. Discussion of specific physiological drug groups are organized according to their use in treating alterations in health and disease processes. The systematic problem solving approach is applied to the administration of medications emphasizing the following: identifying the altered health pattern for which the medication is administered, promoting and monitoring therapeutic effect, observing for and minimizing adverse effects, and evaluating the effectiveness of drug therapy.
3rd Term
In the third term, our philosophy, organizing framework, program objectives and program outcomes are further reinforced through theory and clinical experiences in relation to the specific patient populations. Students learn and demonstrate their mastery of skills in the following three specialties: Pediatric Nursing, Maternal/Child Nursing and Mental Health Nursing. The experience is comprehensive, reflecting the unique, acute and sub-acute care environment specific to the course.
4th Term
In the fourth term, the completion of integrating our philosophy and organizing framework continues through the Adult II Nursing curriculum. This course is designed to provide the student with the knowledge and skills necessary to provide nursing care to adult patients in the acute care setting.
The class schedule and hours of classroom/ clinical/laboratory instruction and practice for the Practical Nursing program are set prior to the start of each term. Students in the day program are typically in class between 7 and 8 hours each day and the typical hours for the program are 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Students in the Evening program are in class from 5:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. during the week and from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on the weekend. This structure allows The Center to provide a balanced and well-delivered program. Classes (theory, clinical and laboratory) are expected to meet for their entire scheduled times.
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