Nursing Administration Practicum

NURS 5309/6309/7309

4 Credit Hours

16 Contact Hours/week

Course Description

This practicum experience is designed to integrate theory in a reality context of the administrator’s role. Opportunities are provided to participate in all phases of the executive role in different administrative settings.

Course Objectives

At the completion of this course the student will be able to:

  1. Use theory and research from nursing and other disciplines to direct nursing practice as a nurse executive.
  2. Implement the role of a nurse executive.
  3. Practice collaboratively with a multi-disciplinary administrative team.

Prerequisites

Prerequisites:  NURS 5301 Nurs Admin I; NURS 5302 Nurs Admin II; NURS 5303 Health Care Finance; NURS 5304 Human Resource Mgmt; NURS 5305 Quality Mgmt in Nurs & Health Care

Specific Course Requirements

Practicum Experience Proposal

1.  Student will develop a proposal for a practicum experience that includes:

a.      purpose

b.      setting/preceptor

c.      goals

d.      objectives

e.      activities

2.  The proposal is to be highly detailed.  Goals should be stated specifically and should relate to the course objectives and the practicum.  Purpose and objectives should be measurable and achievable within the timeframe for the practicum; activities should reflect step-by-step actions necessary to meet the objectives.

3.  The proposal should be written from the perspective of the student, not the organization or client.

4.  The proposal is due on the third week of the semester.

Practicum Experience Journal

1.  The purpose of this journal is to identify the activities, issues, or problems that occurred during each week of the practicum.  An interpretation of these occurrences is to be related to education theory and practice and the course/student practicum objectives.  One annotated journal article relevant to the activity, issue, or problem is to be included each week. Self evaluation and personal responses to the practicum experiences are to be included.

2.  The practicum experience journal will be submitted to the practicum faculty every 3rd week of the semester. 

3.  The completed journal is due on the 13th week of the semester.

Practicum Project/Synthesis Paper

1.  Each student is required to select a project related to the practicum experience that provides an opportunity to demonstrate application of acquired knowledge.

2.  The student will develop a synthesis paper, based on the project goals and objectives, that represents an integration of theory in nursing administration.

3.  The student should discuss the practicum project with the professor prior to beginning the project and when one-half of the practicum experience hours have been completed.

4.  The project and paper must demonstrate understanding and application of administration concepts and theories.

5.  The paper or project is due on the Monday of the 13th week of the course.

            Practicum Synthesis Paper Outline

The paper should be written according to the APA (5th ed.) guidelines.  The paper should contain proper grammar and be free from spelling errors.  This synthesis paper must be limited to no more than 20 typed, double spaced pages.  Paper must be written from a third-person perspective.

Faculty/Student Practicum Conferences

Each student is to schedule four individual telephone/electronic conferences with the professor to discuss his/her practicum experience.  The conference should coincide with submission of the practicum experience journal.

Textbooks

Please visit the Virtual Bookstore to obtain textbook information for this course:  http://rodp.bkstr.com

Same as those from the theoretical courses.

Hardware Requirements

The minimum requirements can be found at http://www.rodp.org/students/hardware_software.htm. 

A video-camera is also required for this course.

Software Requirements

The minimum requirements can be found at http://www.rodp.org/students/hardware_software.htm. 

Additional software requirements for this course include Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint), Acrobat Reader, and supporting software for video-conferencing.

Instructor Information

Please see the separate page inside the course to find instructor contact information as well as a statement of virtual office hours and other communication information.

Testing Procedure

All course requirements are submitted online. 

Methods of Evaluation

            Practicum Experience Proposal             20%

            Practicum Experience Journal                25%

            Practicum Project/synthesis paper         50%

            Online discussion/participation                 5%

Grading Scale

93-100                         A

85-92                             B

77-84                             C

70-76                             D

Below 70         F

Class Participation

All students are expected to actively participate in online class discussions. Each discussion question posted will be assigned a date by which the student must respond.  If a student is unable to fulfill this requirement for any reason, he/she should notify the instructor prior to the class and make alternative arrangements.  The aim is to encourage interaction among students and faculty, not simply to present information. Students are required to respond to all discussion questions. Student responses to discussion questions must be substantive, that is, thoughtful and analytical. Because the WebCT system has its own way of formatting material posted on the discussion feature, the student will not be expected to strictly follow APA guidelines for online submissions. However, the student is held to academic standards of writing style and the use of proper grammar, punctuation and spelling. 

Punctuality

Students are expected to:

•         Check the course calendar for the due dates of assignments.

•         Check the course bulletin board frequently for announcements.

Course Ground Rules

The student is expected to:

•         Learn how to navigate in the WebCT system.

•         Participate by responding to all discussion questions.

•         Keep abreast of course announcements.

•         Use the assigned college or university e-mail address as opposed to a personal e-mail address.

•         Contact the instructor if unclear about assignment expectations.

•         Address technical problems immediately.

Guidelines for Communications

            Email:

•         Always include a subject line.

•         Remember without facial expressions some comments may be taken the wrong way.

•         Be careful in wording your emails. Use of emoticons might be helpful in some cases.

•         Use standard fonts.

•         Do not send large attachments without permission.

•         Special formatting such as centering, audio messages, tables, html, etc. should be avoided unless necessary to complete an assignment or other communication.

•         Respect the privacy of other class members.

            Discussion Groups:

•         Review the discussion threads thoroughly before entering the discussion.

•         Try to maintain threads by using the "Reply" button rather starting a new topic.

•         Do not make insulting or inflammatory statements to other members of the discussion group.

•         Be respectful of others’ ideas.

•         Be patient and read the comments of other group members thoroughly before entering your remarks.

•         Be cooperative with group leaders in completing assigned tasks.

•         Be positive and constructive in group discussions.

•         Respond in a thoughtful and timely manner.

            Chat:

•         Introduce yourself to the other learners in the chat session.

•         Be polite. Choose your words carefully. Do not use derogatory statements.

•         Be concise in responding to others in the chat session.

•         Be prepared to open the chat session at the scheduled time.

•         Be constructive in your comments and suggestions.

Library

The Tennessee Virtual Library is available to all students enrolled in the Regents Degree Program. Links to library materials (such as electronic journals, databases, interlibrary loans, digital reserves, dictionaries, encyclopedias, maps, and librarian support) and Internet resources needed by learners to complete online assignments and as background reading must be included in all courses.

Students with Disabilities

Qualified students with disabilities will be provided reasonable and necessary academic accommodations if determined eligible by the appropriate disability services staff at their home institution. Prior to granting disability accommodations in this course, the instructor must receive written verification of a student's eligibility for specific accommodations from the disability services staff at the home institution. It is the student's responsibility to initiate contact with his/her home institution's disability services staff and to follow the established procedures for having the accommodation notice sent to the instructor.

Syllabus Changes

The instructor reserves the right to make changes as necessary to this syllabus. If changes are necessitated during the term of the course, the instructor will immediately notify students of such changes both by individual email communication and posting both notification and nature of change(s) on the course bulletin board.

Technical Support

If you are having problems logging into the course, timing out of the course, using the course web site tools, or other technical problems, please visit the AskRODP Customer Support web page at http://help.rodp.org or call the AskRODP Help Desk at 1-866-550-RODP (1-866-550-7637)