Overview of Nursing Courses

In the OCNE curriculum, major concepts are introduced in the first courses and threaded across the nursing education program. We call our curriculum "spiraled," referring to the intentional revisiting of major topics throughout the curriculum at increasing levels of difficulty/complexity, so that new learning is related to previous learning.

OCNE's curriculum represents a shift from the fundamentals of Nursing to that which is fundamental to nursing. The singular focus of basic skills/procedures has been broadened substantially to include health promotion, strategic introduction to clinical judgment, evidence-based practice, and leadership. Basic care measures remain, while the instructional approach is altered to having the learning framed from the perspective of a registered nurse.

Courses are organized around foci of care:

• Health Promotion
• Chronic Illness Management
• Acute Care
• End-of-Life Care

And cross-cutting competencies:

• Leadership & Outcomes Management
• Population Health Practice

List of OCNE Nursing Courses*:

• NRS 110/210: Foundations of Nursing Health Promotion
• NRS 111/211: Foundations in Chronic Illness I
• NRS 232: Pathophysiology I
• NRS 230: Pharmacology I
• NRS 112/212: Foundations in Acute Care I
• NRS 233: Pathophysiology II
• NRS 231: Pharmacology II
• NRS 222/322: Nursing in Acute Care II, End of Life
• NRS 221/321: Nursing in Chronic Illness II, End of Life
• NRS 224/424: Integrative Practicum I
• NRS 410: Population Health Practice
• NRS 411: Epidemiology
• NRS 224/424: Integrative Practicum I
• NRS 412: Leadership & Outcomes Management
• NRS 424 (A-H): Population Focus I
• NRS 425 (A-H): Population Focus 2
• NRS 425: Integrative Practicum II

* 400-level Nursing courses are taught only on OHSU campuses. Students must also complete prerequisites and additional non-nursing courses to graduate.

Concepts

The focus on concepts is pertinent to both the clinical setting and a way of integrating clinical experience into the classroom setting. Concepts transcend specific diseases, and are seen as pertinent to multiple diseases or groups of individuals. Here are some examples.

• Concepts in the health promotion course include an emphasis on health behavior change as a middle-range theory and motivational interviewing as an evidence-based intervention to support health-behavior change.
• Concepts in chronic illness courses include concepts of chronicity, self-health care management, functional status assessment, care/case management.
• Concepts in acute care include oxygenation, pain, fluid balance, environments of care, care planning, communication, ethics, and delegation.