RN to B.S. Nursing

The curriculum of the RN to BSN online program is based on contemporary issues in health care today. Nurses study the improvement of health care, creating quality patient outcomes and how to foster strategic change in the health care delivery system. Embedded in the American Sentinel nursing curriculum is an emphasis on quality of care as guided by nursing-sensitive indicators.

In 2009, American Sentinel voluntarily adopted the competencies defined by the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) project (funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) as an integral part of all of our nursing programs. Those six competencies are:

• Patient-centered care
• Teamwork and collaboration
• Evidence-based practice
• Quality improvement
• Informatics
• Safety

American Sentinel enhances its nursing curriculum by adhering to the QSEN model. Our online RN to BSN curriculum prepares nurses to improve the quality and safety of patient care and the health care organizations in which they work.

Practicum experiences are imbedded in the BSN courses. They will range from interviewing or shadowing someone in the desired role to teaching a section of discussion questions in an online course. Online simulation experiences will be incorporated into the practica experiences.

Our rigorous curriculum covers a breadth of issues in nursing and health care, giving nurses the foundation and skills to expand their practice. Here are a few of the RN to BSN program’s key courses:

• Case Management (BSN440): Emphasizes patient management across the health care continuum, rather than episodic patient management in an acute-care environment.
• Developing Nursing Practice (BSN436): Teaches nurses to employ critical thinking tactics to achieve the Institute of Medicine’s core competencies. Helps nurses learn to bring new knowledge and evidence-based practice into their own practice.
• Public Health Nursing (BSN425 and BSN430): Requires students to complete a hands-on community health assessment project.
• Capstone Project (BSN499): Helps students learn to become change agents in their own environment by creating a solution to an organizational problem.

View the entire RN to BSN curriculum.

Graduates of the RN to BSN program will be able to:

• Assume a leadership role within multidisciplinary teams within health care organizations.
• Directly provide and manage competent health care—simple to complex—for individuals, families and groups.
• Enhance professional nursing practice through the use of research and evidence-based practice.
• Integrate methods of research and scholarship to make and prioritize diagnoses.
• Plan, implement and evaluate care of individuals, groups and communities.
• Incorporate methods of health promotion and education in nursing care of individuals, families, and groups with simple to complex health care needs.
• Accept accountability and responsibility for their professional judgment and actions.
• Integrate professional values and role behaviors.
• Understand the problems of contemporary health and illness.
• Embrace the role of the global citizen.
• Collaborate with other groups to shape health policies that affect both individual and community health.

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