Syllabus for NUR-443
Public Health Nursing
The promotion of health and prevention of illness is the focus of the Public Health Nursing course. Theories from public health, nursing, and social science, as well as knowledge gained from previous learning set the foundation for students to critically analyze the health of selected populations in a community. Healthy People 2020 serves as a guide for the identification of at-risk groups throughout the lifespan.
After successfully completing this course, you will be able to:
CO1 Examine the impact of socio-cultural, demographic, geographic, and economic variables on population health.
CO2 Use an epidemiological and ecological perspective for aggregate-focused health assessment, program planning, and implementation.
CO3 Utilize information technologies to assess available public health data and best available evidence to identify population health risks, health promotion, and risk reduction interventions.
CO4 Describe the structure of the public health system, public health laws and major financing strategies that support health service delivery.
CO5 Communicate effectively and participate as a team member with community stakeholders to identify areas for health promotion, community action and advocacy.
You will need the following materials to do the work of the course. The required textbook is available from the University's textbook supplier, MBS Direct.
Note: Register your textbook for access to textbook podcasts and other resources.
Public Health Nursing (NUR-443) is a four-credit online course, consisting of four modules. Modules include an overview, topics, learning objectives, study materials, and activities. Module titles are listed below.
For your formal work in the course, you are required to participate in online discussion forums and complete written assignments. See below for more details.
Consult the Course Calendar for assignment due dates.
Please note: (1) Rewriting or re-submitting assignments is not permitted; (2) no assignments may be submitted after the last day of the course without an approved extension; and (3) extension requests must be approved by the mentor and submitted by the student to the Registrar's Office prior to the last day of the course.
You are required to participate in 11 graded discussion forums. Discussion forums are on a variety of topics associated with the course modules. Citations in the online discussions should follow APA manual of style guidelines and references to online sources must be linked. There is also an ungraded but required introduction forum in module 1 and an ungraded but required reflection forum in week 12. There is also an ungraded but required topic selection forum for Course Project #1 in week 3.
Note: The minimum participation requirement for discussion forum activities is at least three posts on at least three different days—an initial post responding to the questions and at least two posts to at least two classmates. Located within the Evaluation Rubrics folder on the course website is the online discussion forum rubric used to grade all online discussions.
The course requires you to complete 60 Practice Experience hours (90 hours for students who reside in California to meet that state’s public health certification requirements). Practice hours include all interventions that support the health of a chosen population through direct and indirect care experiences. By the end of the first week of the course, you should have identified a community / community- focused organization or group as your Practice Experience Environment for mentor review and approval (See course calendar and Module 1). Examples include a Head Start program, school nurse office, senior center, senior housing project, agency on aging, public health department, community support program for vulnerable populations (e.g., homeless population) etc. For further guidance, please see the Practice Experience Background Information document. All practice experience hours must be recorded in the Practice Experience Log and submitted at the end of the course. The Log is graded Pass/Fail.
Note: You must pass all competencies to pass the course.
You are required to complete three course projects:
At the beginning of the course you should review the requirements for each project, as they may require additional time to gather necessary information.
Check the Course Projects folder for details on each assignment.
Located within the Evaluation Rubrics section of the course website are the written assignment rubrics used to aid in the grading of each written assignment.
See Course Calendar for due dates.
You are required to submit all assignments in this course to Turnitin.com, an academic plagiarism prevention site, prior to submitting the assignment within your course space.
For each, you will need to complete your work with the turnitin.com site prior to submitting the assignment within your course space. You will receive immediate written feedback from Turnitin regarding writing style as well as a plagiarism gauge with tips for proper citations. You then have the opportunity to edit your assignment with this feedback in mind and resubmit it to Turnitin for additional checking. Once you are satisfied with the project, you are required to submit the Turnitin feedback (also known as the originality report) for the final version along with the project itself within the course space.
Read carefully the documents at the following links, as they will give you instructions for this requirement:
Details on accessing and using Turnitin may be found at the following link: Turnitin Details
This information can also be found within Using Turnitin for Assignments. You can locate this document in the topic list area of your course space.
Your grade in the course will be determined as follows:
All activities will receive a numerical grade of 0–100. You will receive a score of 0 for any work not submitted. Your final grade in the course will be a letter grade. Letter grade equivalents for numerical grades are as follows:
A | = | 93–100 | C+ | = | 78–79 | |
A– | = | 90–92 | C | = | 73–77 | |
B+ | = | 88–89 | C– | = | 70–72 | |
B | = | 83–87 | D | = | 60–69 | |
B– | = | 80–82 | F | = | Below 60 |
To receive credit for the course, you must earn a letter grade of C or better (BSN students) or C+ or better (BSNA students), based on the weighted average of all assigned course work (e.g., assignments, papers, discussion postings, etc.).
Written assignments should be submitted no later than the due date unless prior arrangements are made with the mentor and a new due date is established. If a student submits an assignment after the due date without having made arrangements with the mentor, a minimum of five points, (based on an assignment grading scale of 100 points), or 5% of the total points, will be deducted for each week, or part thereof, that the assignment is late. Discussion Forum assignments must be done in the week they are due, or points will be forfeited.
To succeed in this course, take the following first steps.
Consider the following study tip for success.
To stay on track throughout the course, begin each week by consulting the Course Calendar. The calendar provides an overview of the course and indicates due dates for submitting assignments, posting discussions, and scheduling and taking examinations.
Students at Thomas Edison State University are expected to exhibit the highest level of academic citizenship. In particular, students are expected to read and follow all policies, procedures, and program information guidelines contained in publications; pursue their learning goals with honesty and integrity; demonstrate that they are progressing satisfactorily and in a timely fashion by meeting course deadlines and following outlined procedures; observe a code of mutual respect in dealing with mentors, staff, and other students; behave in a manner consistent with the standards and codes of the profession in which they are practicing; keep official records updated regarding changes in name, address, telephone number, or e-mail address; and meet financial obligations in a timely manner. Students not practicing good academic citizenship may be subject to disciplinary action including suspension, dismissal, or financial holds on records.
Thomas Edison State University expects all of its students to approach their education with academic integrity—the pursuit of scholarly activity free from fraud and deception. All mentors and administrative staff members at the University insist on strict standards of academic honesty in all courses. Academic dishonesty undermines this objective. Academic dishonesty can take the following forms:
Please refer to the Academic Code of Conduct Policy in the University Catalog and online at www.tesu.edu.
Using someone else’s work as your own is plagiarism. Thomas Edison State University takes a strong stance against plagiarism, and students found to be plagiarizing will be severely penalized. If you copy phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or whole documents word-for-word—or if you paraphrase by changing a word here and there—without identifying the author, or without identifying it as a direct quote, then you are plagiarizing. Please keep in mind that this type of identification applies to Internet sources as well as to print-based sources. Copying and pasting from the Internet, without using quotation marks and without acknowledging sources, constitutes plagiarism. (For information about how to cite Internet sources, see Online Student Handbook > Academic Standards > “Citing Sources.”)
Accidentally copying the words and ideas of another writer does not excuse the charge of plagiarism. It is easy to jot down notes and ideas from many sources and then write your own paper without knowing which words are your own and which are someone else’s. It is more difficult to keep track of each and every source. However, the conscientious writer who wishes to avoid plagiarizing never fails to keep careful track of sources.
Always be aware that if you write without acknowledging the sources of your ideas, you run the risk of being charged with plagiarism.
Clearly, plagiarism, no matter the degree of intent to deceive, defeats the purpose of education. If you plagiarize deliberately, you are not educating yourself, and you are wasting your time on courses meant to improve your skills. If you plagiarize through carelessness, you are deceiving yourself.
For examples of unintentional plagiarism, advice on when to quote and when to paraphrase, and information about writing assistance and originality report checking, click the links provided below.
Examples of Unintentional Plagiarism
When to Quote and When to Paraphrase
Writing Assistance at Smarthinking
Originality Report Checking at Turnitin
First-time incidents of academic dishonesty concerning plagiarism may reflect ignorance of appropriate citation requirements. Mentors will make a good faith effort to address all first-time offenses that occur in courses. In these cases, the mentor may impose sanctions that serve as a learning exercise for the offender. These may include the completion of tutorials, assignment rewrites, or any other reasonable learning tool including a lower grade when appropriate. The mentor will notify the student by e-mail. Decisions about the sanctions applied for subsequent plagiarism offenses or other violations will be made by the appropriate dean’s office, with the advice of the mentor or staff person who reported the violation. The student will be notified via certified mail of the decision. Options for sanctions include:
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