This course provides an overview of advanced practice nursing. Select physical, pathophysiologic, social, mental health, and behavioral concepts will be discussed as a basis for clinical decision-making. Trends in health and nursing at national and state levels will be analyzed, as well as issues of professionalism. Emphasis will be on the role of the nurse practitioner as a collaborative member of the health care team, and on the nurse practitioner's contributions to health, wellness, and health promotion.

This course focuses on the advanced practice nurse's management of common, acute health problems of individuals across the lifespan and determining the effect of the illness on families. Emphasis will be on differentiating a variety of signs and symptoms to formulate possible diagnoses. Students will demonstrate proficiency in assessing, diagnosing, managing, and evaluating common, acute health problems. Emphasis is on analysis of the role of the nurse practitioner as a collaborative member of the health care team.

Seminar (2 credits): This course focuses on the advanced practice nurse's management in select common and stable chronic health problems of individuals across the lifespan. Emphasis will be placed on differentiating signs and symptoms to formulate possible diagnoses and determining the effect of the illness on the family. In addition, the nurse practitioner's role as a collaborative member of the health care team will be evaluated.

The community health nurse in advanced practice completes a three course sequence. Each course builds upon one of the three core functions of public health and nursing as identified by the Publlic Health Service of the U.S. This seminar addresses the first core function of assessment in advanced nursing practice in public health including the collecting, analyzing and dissemination of information about the health conditions, risks and resources in communities, or a population in targeted health care environments, such as home health or managed care.

This course addresses the second public health core function: the use of assessment data in the analysis and development of policy and program plans to meet the health, illness and health resource needs of communities. Students will evaluate the use of policy as an aggregate-level intervention strategy and determine the extent to which a nursing intervention classification can be used to categorize policy strategies. Policies will be evaluated in relation to current national and state health objectives for special populations.

This course focuses on the third core public health function of monitoring health services to communities, collaborating with other health disciplines in the development and delivery of needed services, and using quality assurance activities to improve health, illness and health resources to communities. Students will learn the use of surveillance, evaluation, and performance improvement techniques in assuring cost-effective health services for communities and targeted health care environments such as home health or managed care.

In this course students will learn the various models of care management and will analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each from the perspective of clients, health care providers, and payors. They will evaluate how each model promotes seamless care delivery for clients and under what conditions each model is most effective. Students will identify the roles and function of nurse care managers within each model and opportunities for further role development.

In this variable credit course, students will focus on articulating clinical outcomes for care management and on promoting optimal clinical outcomes. Students will learn methods of measuring clinical outcomes and will analyze issues associated with measuring outcomes that span service settings. Students will learn how to adapt the methods used by the Patient Outcome Research Teams for identifying optimal client outcomes with varying therapeutic interventions.

A study of theories, concepts, and research related to the neonate with emphasis on adaptation to extrauterine life and stabilization of the newborn, parameters and methods of assessment, variations in normal, deviations from normal, and physical and emotional needs of the neonate. Focus will be on the theoretical aspects of the nurse-midwifery management of the care for the neonate.

A study of theories, concepts, and research related to well woman health care with emphasis on reproductive health maintenance, sexuality, family planning, variations in normal, deviations from normal, sexual dysfunction, infertility, and unplanned pregnancy. Focus will be on the care for healthy women throughout the life span.