Curriculum Definitions:

Caring

Caring "encompasses the nurse's empathy for and connection with the patient as well as the ability to translate these affective characteristics into compassionate, sensitive, appropriate care" (AACN, 1998, p. 8). Professional values provide the foundation for caring in professional nursing practice.

Core Competencies

Essential skills and attributes for professional nursing practice (AACN, 1998, p. 9-12).

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking "underlies independent and interdependent decision making; it includes questioning, analysis, synthesis, interpretation, inference, inductive and deductive reasoning, intuition, application, and creativity" (AACN, 1998, p. 9).

Communication

Communication is "a complex, ongoing, interactive process and forms the basis for building interpersonal relationships; includes listening as well as oral, nonverbal, and written communication skills" (AACN, 1998, p. 10).

Assessment

Assessment is "gathering information about the health status of the patient, analyzing and synthesizing those data, making judgments about nursing interventions based on the findings, and evaluating patient care outcomes. Assessment includes understanding the patient and utilizing data from organizations and systems in planning and delivering care" (AACN, 1998, p.10).

Technical Skills

Technical skills are those skills essential for baccalaureate nursing practice in diverse settings which reflect an understanding of scientific principles (AACN, 1998).

Core Knowledge

Core knowledge is defined as essential knowledge for the practice of professional nursing.

Health Promotion/ Risk Reduction/ Disease Prevention

Health promotion, risk reduction, and disease prevention "requires knowledge about health risks and methods to prevent or reduce the risks; knowledge of expected growth and development of individuals across the lifespan is essential. Disease prevention includes methods of keeping an illness or injury from occurring, diagnosing and treating a disease early in its course, and preventing further deterioration of a person/client's functioning due to disease" (AACN,1998, p. 12).

Illness and Disease Management

Illness and disease management "requires knowledge about pharmacology, pathophysiology of disease, assessment, and management of symptoms across the lifespan. It requires knowledge about the social, physical, psychological, and spiritual responses of the individual and caregiver to disease and illness; the goal is to maximize the quality of life and maintain optimal level of functioning throughout the course of illness, including end of life" (AACN,1998, p. 13).

Information and Health Technologies

Information and health technologies "includes traditional and developing methods of discovering retrieving, and using information in nursing practice; includes methods and equipment designed to provide assessment data and support anatomic and physiological function" (AACN, 1998, p. 13).

Ethics

Ethics "includes values, codes, and principles that govern decisions in nursing practice, conduct and relationships; skill and knowledge in resolving conflicts related to role obligations and personal beliefs are necessary" (AACN, 1998, p. 14).

Human Diversity

Human diversity "includes understanding the ways cultural, racial, socioeconomic, religious, and lifestyle variations are expressed" (AACN, 1998, p. 15).

Global Health Care

Global health care "includes an understanding of the implications of living with transportation and information technology that link all parts of the world; information about the effects of the global community on such areas as disease transmission, health policy, and health care economics is required" (AACN, 1998, p. 15).

Health Systems

Health systems are dynamic and diverse programs by which patients access health care.

Health Care System and Policy

Health care system policy "includes an understanding of the organization and environment in which nursing and health care is provided; shapes health care systems and helps determine accessibility, accountability, and affordability" (AACN, 1998, p. 15).

Nursing Process

Nursing process is a systematic method of approaching patient care, based on a problem solving method.

Spiritual Care

Spiritual care includes an understanding of "Interventions, individual, or communal that facilitates the ability to experience the integration of the body, mind, and spirit to achieve wholeness, health, and a sense of connection to self, others, and a higher power" (American Nurses Association and Health Ministries, p. 38).

Evidence-Based Practice

Evidence-based practice is care that integrates the best practices with clinical expertise and patient values for optimum care (AACN 2008, p. 36).

Environment

The environment consists of dynamic internal and external factors that interact to impact a patient's health. Each patient lives within and interacts with an ever-changing environment. The environment can be altered to positively affect a person's health by changing or removing unhealthy stressors and enhancing or providing health-promoting resources. The patient is influenced by and responsive to their environment and can choose to alter their internal and external environment to impact their health and quality of life (South Dakota State University, 2003).

Internal environment is comprised of genetic makeup, physiological state, psychological state, and perception of how the body and mind affects the patient.

External environment consists of animate and inanimate influences that affect the patient.

Health

Health encompasses multidimensional states (physical, psychological, sociocultural and spiritual dimensions) of wellness and illness with both subjective and objective components. Wellness is a perceived balanced state, while illness is a perceived imbalanced state within the dimensions of the patient. Health is individually defined and dynamic throughout the lifespan (South Dakota State University, 2003).

Nursing

Nursing responds to and interacts with patients and environments to promote quality of life in health, illness and end of life. Nursing, expressed as a professional way of caring, uses both art and science to address all dimensions of the patient by applying research and theories. Nursing serves as an intentional catalyst for change to promote health in evolving diverse environments through education, leadership and social responsibility, as well as direct and indirect clinical interventions (South Dakota State University, 2003).

Patient

The patient can be an individual, family, aggregate, community or society/population who is the recipient of nursing care. Each patient is a multidimensional being, which includes physical, psychological, socio-cultural and spiritual dimensions throughout the lifespan (South Dakota State University, 2003).

Individual

The individual is a single, separate human being within an environment.

Family

Family is a self-defined basic unit of society that consists of two or more people. These individuals support one another, socially, spiritually, emotionally, physically, and/or economically.

Aggregate

Aggregate is defined as populations who share some common interests, problems, or goals but who may not interact to address those concerns.

Community

Community is a collection of people in an open system who interact to achieve common goals.

Society/ population

Society/population is a collection of various communities that share common interests and goals.

Spirituality

Spirituality is the quality or essence that pervades, integrates, and transcends one's biopsychosocial nature. It is a connection to life and a way of interpreting life events. It is the source of hope, joy, comfort, and direction in life (Craven and Hirnle, 2007).

Vulnerable Populations

Vulnerable populations refer to social groups with increased relative risk (i.e. exposure risk factors) or susceptibility to health-related problems (AACN, 2008).