3 semester hours (2 hours theory, 1 hour practicum)

Students should anticipate at least 6 hours of work time each week for theory and at least 3 hours a week for clinical time as well as clinical prep and documentation time.

1. Design nursing processes to provide comprehensive care to families across different family development stages and family types and in structured-unstructured settings, simple-complex situations, and predictable-unpredictable circumstances.
2. Create partnerships with *patients in the customized therapeutic care process to protect, promote, and  restore optimal health to families.
3. Incorporate therapeutic communication skills with families.
4. Evaluate practice decisions using critical thinking.
5. Evaluate strategies to improve nursing care to families through scholarship.
6. Manage, lead, and collaborate with health care providers from multiple disciplines to deliver quality care to families across levels of prevention and within organizational structures of diverse health care settings.
7. Adhere to ethical and legal conduct that reflect the standards of nursing practice with families.
8. Display behaviors that demonstrate the values of a self-directed professional engaged in continuing development.

1. Assess the family across environments. To include: health history, physical exam, family assessment, behavior, risk assessment, developmental assessment.
2. Establish developmentally appropriate nursing diagnoses.
3. Identify strategies for health promotion, risk reduction, disease prevention with families.
4. Evaluate the effectiveness of nursing care.
5. Partner with patients to design a culturally sensitive data based problem list in coordination with the selected family.
6. Demonstrate safe, therapeutic, and customized nursing care.
7. Incorporate patient education into nursing care.
8. Utilize effective communication with selected family.
9. Demonstrate professional role behavior.
10. Identify and address barriers to therapeutic communication.
11. Demonstrate scholarship for the acquisition and application of new knowledge to practice.
12. Apply critical safety interventions in nursing practice across environments.
13. Demonstrate safe clinical judgment in planning and providing care.
14. Evaluate nursing goal achievement and interventions for selected family based on identified outcome criteria.
15. Demonstrate the principles of teaching/learning in patient care delivery.
16. Utilize the findings from a research study with selected family.
17. Assist patients to access information and to interpret meaning and validity of health information.
18. Collaborate effectively with others to deliver quality care to families.
19. Refer patients to appropriate resources.
20. Assist patient with access to health care.
21. Adhere to ethical and legal conduct that reflects the standards of nursing practice and Code of Ethics with families.
22. Demonstrate accountability and responsibility for own behavior.
23. Demonstrates the values of a self-directed professional engaged in continuing development.

Successful completion of NURS.4310 requires satisfactory completion of both the clinical and theoretical objectives of the course.

Clinical performance is graded pass/fail and consists of successful completion of the clinical objectives. Clinical includes weekly family visits, weekly family logs and all scheduled or called clinical conferences and is the bases for the Friedman Family Assessment and the Family Log. Lack of successful completion of any portion of these will result a grade of F in the course, regardless of the grade in theory.  Students missing 10% (4.5) hours or more of required clinical time (45 hours) will not progress in the semester during the semester the time is missed in. Students missing less than 10% (4.5 hours) of required clinical time will not pass the course if they do not successfully meet the clinical requirements for the course.

Papers and assignments are due as identified on the courses Due Dates Sheet (by both time and date). Students are responsible for submitting work in the manner/route identified on the Due Dates Sheet or for pro-actively making other arrangements with course faculty. Papers received up to 24 hours after the due date   
will have 5 points deducted; over 24 hours and up to 48 hours late will have 10 points deducted and over 48 hours and up to 72 hours will have 15 points deducted. Papers will not be accepted after 72 hours.

Theory is given a letter grade and is based on exams, application exercises and the Friedman Family Assessment.   If the student passes clinical, the course grade will be the grade achieved in theory.

In order to pass the theory portion of the course, the student must achieve a weighted average of at least 70% on the three examinations and a weighted average of 70 on all of the graded activities. The theory grade is based on the following activities and weights:

Introduction to Course, Syllabus, Course Packet, Clinical Orientation and Friedman Review

1.       Family Nursing History and Trends / Definitions

2..      Theoretical Foundations of Family Nursing – Part 1

                      General Systems Theory

                      Nursing Theories

                      Social science Theory

                      Family Therapy Theories

3..      Theoretical Foundations of Family Nursing – Part 2

                      Structural-Functional Family Theory

                      Intergenerational Family Theory

                      Family Interactional Theory

                      Family Stress Theory       

4.         Developmental Family Theory  / Family Nursing Process

            Family Assessment Tools/Patterns

                      Genogram

                      Ecogram

                      Enmeshment/Disengagement

                      Triangles

                      Intergenerational Patterns

                      Other

5.         Family Culture,Values
6.         Genetics, Genomics, Environment, Social Policy

7.         Family  Communication

8.         Family  Roles

9.         Family Affective Functions

10.       Family Health Care Functions

11.       Family Issues, Power, Decision Making, Economics

12.       Families in Flux and Crisis, Divorce

13.       The Childbearing Family

                     Sexuality / Sexual Role Development

                     Teen Pregnancy

                     Infertility

14.        The Childrearing Family

                     Child Development

                     Parenting  / Grandparenting

                     Socialization, Discipline, Safety

15.        The Aging Family

16.        Family Violence