Vocational Nursing

Program Overview

The Vocational Nursing program teaches students the skills and abilities essential to the provision of nursing care to patients in hospitals and residents in long-term-care facilities. Graduates will be able to communicate and interact effectively with patients and assist patients in attaining and maintaining maximum functional independence while observing patient rights. They will learn various disease processes, nursing goals and priorities, patient teaching, critical thinking skills, and how to follow infection control measures. Students learn medication administration, IV therapy, proper body mechanics and basic patient care, which includes taking vital signs, bed making, and lifting and turning patients.

Graduates of this program may find entry-level employment in long-term-care facilities, acute-care facilities, and hospitals. This intensive, one-year program provides education and practical training in basic nursing care. The content is holistic in relation to the variety of nursing experience and in relation to the multiple needs in patient care. Graduates are prepared to function as a member of the healthcare team in providing basic nursing care. A diploma will be issued upon successful completion of the program. Meeting all state requirements, graduates are prepared for their state licensing examination.

Registration and certification requirements for taking and passing this examination are not controlled by Concorde, but by outside agencies, and are subject to change by the agency without notice. Therefore, Concorde cannot guarantee that graduates will be eligible to take this exam, at all or at any specific time, regardless of their eligibility status upon enrollment.

Program Purpose

The purpose of the Vocational Nursing program at Concorde Career College is to prepare high-caliber, professionally competent Vocational Nurses for today, tomorrow, and the future.

Program Mission

Concorde Career College Practical Nursing Program ensures the healthcare community of competent graduates who are capable and productive entry-level practitioners. These individuals espouse professionalism, and adhere to established standards of care and ethical practice

Program Philosophy

The Vocational Nursing program is founded on beliefs that are consistent with the parent organization and the community at large. The faculty of the Vocational Nursing program hold the following beliefs about the individual, nursing, health, and nursing education.

Practical/Vocational Nursing
Nursing is practiced at various levels of complexity. Vocational Nursing represents one such level and is characterized by specific knowledge, technical skills, and complexity derived from the entire domain of nursing. Vocational Nursing is practiced in a variety of healthcare settings in collaboration with the registered nurse and/or other healthcare providers.

Individual
Each individual has value, worth, dignity, and right. Each individual is unique, and his or her uniqueness is manifested in a highly complex, ever-changing system of biological, sociological, psychological, cultural, and spiritual factors. Because of the interrelationship of these factors, it is imperative that each of these components be taken into consideration in order to address the wholeness of the individual. Each individual, to the extent that he or she is capable of making free choices, should be given the right to make free, informed choices, with the understanding that he or she is at the same time accountable for those decisions. Individuals seek healthcare in a variety of settings.

Nursing
Nursing is the art of caring, which is concerned with assisting individuals, families, and other groups in coping with and responding to actual or potential health problems. Nursing is best carried out in an organized, systematic manner in order to enhance the quality of human life that each individual is capable of attaining.

Health
Health is the status or position of an individual on the wellness-illness continuum. The health status is a dynamic state and is based on the interrelationship of biological, sociological, psychological, cultural, and spiritual factors of the individual.

Nursing Education
Nursing education occurs in both classroom and clinical settings. Nursing education involves the development of problem-solving and decision-making skills based upon the acquisition of knowledge, psychomotor skills, and values. Vocational Nursing education focuses on providing safe, competent nursing service to individuals of all age groups who are experiencing commonly occurring compromises in their health status with predictable outcomes. Vocational Nursing education is based upon scientific principles and provides a foundation of competencies upon which the Vocational Nurse may build in the future.

Education is an active process of both teaching and learning. Learning occurs best when the individual perceives a need or desire to learn. Learning is evidenced by a change in behavior. Learning is facilitated through a positive and supportive environment throughout the entire educational process. Teaching is both an art and a science. The purpose of teaching is to facilitate learning in a logical manner with optimal utility and relevance for the learner.

Program Conceptual Framework

The curriculum of the Vocational Nursing program is based on concepts described below. These concepts are integrated through the didactic and clinical components of the program and are implemented as horizontal and vertical threads.

Individual:

A person, families, a group of persons, or a community.

Biological, Sociological, Psychological, Cultural, and Spiritual Factors:

Components of an individual’s uniqueness affecting his or her health status.

Teaching and Learning:

Exchange of information for the purpose of creating a change of behavior in the students. Key strategies for the organization and presentation of information essential to teaching and learning are:

Simple to complex—evidenced by curriculum content and level of thinking skills required in the accomplishment of each objective;

Concrete to abstract—in terms of curriculum content;

Repetition strengthens learning—in content related to didactic, clinical, and post-conference and practice of basic nursing skills.

Needs:

Identified problems or deficits that affect or have the potential to affect an individual’s optimal health status. These are prioritized according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Scope of Nursing:

The diagnosis and treatment of an individual’s response to actual and/or potential health problems or deficits.

Vocational Nursing:

A component of the entire scope of the nursing practice. When the care of an individual is guided by a written plan, Vocational Nursing is manifested through clinical practice that involves assistance with:

Collection of data contributing to the formulation of nursing diagnoses;

Development of the care plan; Evaluation of the individual’s response to interventions.

End of Program Student Learning Outcomes

This intensive, one-year full time program provides education and practical training in basic nursing care. The content is holistic in relation to the variety of nursing experience and in relation to the multiple need in patient care. Concorde Vocational Nursing graduates will:

1. Provide safe, caring and compassionate nursing care to diverse patients across the lifespan in various healthcare settings using evidenced based practice to improve outcomes.
2. Function as a competent, entry-level healthcare provider applying leadership and management skills and embracing ethical and legal principles in the provision of culturally appropriate nursing care.
3. Collaborate with members of the inter-professional healthcare team to provide optimal care for diverse patients and their families.
4. Communicate effectively through verbal, nonverbal and technological methods with patients, families and members of the inter-professional healthcare team.

A diploma will be issued upon successful completion of the program. Upon meeting all state requirements graduates will be prepared to sit for their state licensing examination.