Increase credit allotment in NUR 344 Health Assessment

Abstract

The nursing program currently has two credits allotted to Health Assessment (NUR 344 Health Assessment, 1 credit; and NUR 345 Health Assessment Clinical, 1 credit). The nursing department is requesting a one credit increase to NUR 344 (the didactic portion of the requirement). (1) Increasing the credit allotment will allow to add the needed class time to teach the content required in this course. The content has increased in amount with the changing health care environment. (2) Students will be better prepared to enter their hospital clinical experiences and will not spend precious clinical time trying to learn health assessment contact that was not covered in NUR 344 due to a deficit in class time. (3) Graduates of our program whom apply to graduate school need a 3-credit Health Assessment course to be able to transfer this course to their graduate work. Up to this time, graduates have had to repeat this course as the Health Assessment combination of NUR 344/345 is only a total of 2 credits.