Overview
Nursing 400: Adult Health and Health Alterations builds on the foundational nursing knowledge of anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, and pharmacology. NURS 400 provides a theoretical foundation for NURS 401: Professional Practice with Adults Experiencing Health Alterations.
The course content focus is on safe, competent, ethical nursing care with adults experiencing a wide range of acute and chronic alterations in health. The course is broken up into body systems for clear organization of content. In each study guide unit, there is an emphasis on the comprehensive understanding of the adult patient's altered health experience and associated interventions. As you work through each unit, focus on relevant health assessment data, risk factors, clinical manifestations, underlying pathophysiological processes, laboratory values, diagnostic tests, nursing and medical management, pharmacologic therapies, anticipating and monitoring for potential complications or expected patient outcomes, and relevant patient education and evaluations.
Learning outcomes
On completion of this course, students will be able to
- apply and integrate knowledge of health alterations, health assessment findings, underlying pathology, risk factors, and clinical manifestations within the nursing process for optimal patient health outcomes;
- evaluate assessment data, including laboratory values and diagnostic information in regards to planning of nursing care with acute and chronically ill patients and their families;
- determine actual and potential complications related to health alterations and recognize the role of anticipatory planning in the ongoing health assessment;
- analyze and evaluate therapeutic interventions in the provision of safe and competent nursing care in the healthcare environment (including medication calculations);
- demonstrate professional accountability and responsibility for one's own learning and performance evaluations throughout the course; and
- use relevant nursing knowledge and research findings in assessing, planning, and evaluating information to provide evidence-based care to acutely and chronically ill adults and their families.
Evaluation
To receive credit for NURS 400, you must complete and submit all the required assignments, achieve a minimum grade of 64% on the midterm and final exams, and achieve an overall grade of at least C (64 percent). There is no opportunity to withdraw from the course after the first attempt on the midterm exam. A grade of F will be assigned if a minimum of 64% is not achieved on the midterm supplemental exam. Written submissions must follow the most current edition of the Publication Manual by the American Psychological Association ll.
The assignments and weighting of the composite grade is as follows:
| Activity | Weight |
| Assignments 1: Concept Map and Case Analysis 1 | 15% |
| Assignments 2: Concept Map and Case Analysis 2 | 15% |
| Midterm Exam: *There is no opportunity to withdraw from the course after the first attempt at the midterm exam. A grade of F will be assigned if a minimum of 64% is not achieved on the supplemental exam. | 35% |
| Final Exam: | 35% |
| Total | 100% |
The midterm and final examinations for this course must be requested in advance and written under the supervision of an AU-approved exam invigilator. Invigilators include either ProctorU or an approved in-person invigilation centre that can accommodate online exams. Students are responsible for payment of any invigilation fees. Information on exam request deadlines, invigilators, and other exam-related questions, can be found at the Exams and grades section of the Calendar.
To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University鈥檚 online Calendar.
Materials
Digital course materials
Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
Hussein, E. & Osuji, J (2019). Brunner and Suddarth's Canadian textbook of medical-surgical nursing (4th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
The required learning activities in this course use Brunner and Suddarth's Canadian Textbook of Medical-Surgical Nursing as a primary source of information. There are multiple online student resources located in thePoint® associated with the course textbook. Instructions for accessing these resources can be found on the inside front cover of the textbook.
Other Materials
A variety of electronic resources and websites are used in the course and paper copies are not included in the course package.
Recommended Online Resources
It is recommended that you purchase one online study resource that contains NCLEX style adaptive learning (mastery) quizzes (will be explained in course introduction and Unit 1). The chosen resource should include NCLEX alternate style questions, such as “select all that apply.” Students are advised to choose between two recommended resources:
- Lippincott's NCLEX-RN PassPoint online comprehensive preparation resource. Passpoint contains NCLEX style questions from all nursing areas. Refer to NCLEX RN Information Module in Moodle for more information and discount codes.
- Lippincott's Paul: Canadian Medical Surgical Prep U